Erika Alonso
b. August 21, 1987
Houston, TX
Erika Alonso is an artist living and working in Houston, Texas. She is a first-generation Cuban-American born in Mission Hills, California. She spent her early childhood in Southern California, before moving to South Texas with her family. She has lived in Houston for over fifteen years. Erika attended the University of Houston where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in marketing. While she has some formal education in art, she is mostly self-taught. She works in many areas of art, including painting, collage, graphic design, and illustration. Her primary mediums include watercolor, pen and brush in ink, and oil.
Erika’s most recent work—paintings of watercolor and ink—mixes method with pure chance through a unique process that intertwines psychic automatism and action painting. Despite her suggestible process, recurring themes emerge—obsessions with hair, multi-faced people, and fantastical creatures—each of which tell a truth about her. In combining her penchant for harsh black ink markings with pale-toned watercolors, the artist has created a dark and whimsical collection of creatures and beings.