Artist Statement
These are not photographs — they are states.
States to stay with.
My work departs from decades of precision and representation.
Craftsmanship remains. Control no longer does.
Photography is my medium, not my destination.
I create the conditions in which an image can appear.
Only then do I recognize it.
Each work begins with a painted surface and is transformed through the camera into an image that resists immediate recognition.
I do not tell stories.
I do not explain.
My work asks for attention.
For time.
For openness.
The work unfolds slowly.
Each encounter is different.
Meaning does not live in what is shown.
It remains unresolved.
Beyond the visible — before meaning settles.
— Eric Rugers
Biography
Eric Rugers (b. 1970, Melbourne) is a Netherlands-based artist working between painting and photography.
His images originate in layered painted surfaces, photographed in extreme close-up until form begins to loosen. He creates the conditions in which an image can appear. Only then does the image emerge. Texture becomes presence. Color and light destabilize the frame — something neither fully abstract nor fully figurative.
After more than thirty years in illustration and design, Rugers retains a precise sense of composition and chromatic balance, but no longer works in service of control. In 2022, he left applied precision behind to focus fully on an autonomous fine-art practice.
His images resist narration and refuse explanation. Forms appear, dissolve, and shift in the act of looking. Meaning is never fixed, but unfolds through sustained attention and the viewer’s own experience.
Influenced by Turner’s light, Peter Doig’s atmospheric ambiguity, and the Japanese aesthetics of yūgen and ma, his work invites slow looking and an openness to what gradually emerges.
His work has been exhibited internationally, including in Berlin and Paris, and is held in the collection of the Museum of Avant-garde (Switzerland). Recent recognitions include the Audience Award at the BBA Photography Prize Exhibition (Berlin), 3rd Place in the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts International Photography Competition, and the Silver Prize in ArtAscent’s international Abstraction competition.
In Conversation
The Door to Resonance: Eric RugersFeatured in The Ambrosia Journal, Ambrose Creatives.
Read the full interview
Recognition and Exhibitions
2026- Audience Award, BBA Photography Prize Exhibition, Berlin
- Shortlisted, BBA Photography Prize Exhibition, Berlin
- Pic(k)s of the Day, BBA Photography Prize
- 3rd Place, Abstract Category, Florida Museum of Photographic Arts International Photography Competition
- Art-Icon Exhibition (LOVE), Paris
- UNFIXED, Ambrose Creatives (online exhibition)
- NOCKNOCK Art Fair, Amsterdam
2025
- Silver Prize, ArtAscent (Abstraction)
- Antanas Sutkus MA-g Award (Finalist)
- Hungry Eye Fair, Amsterdam
2024
- Graciela Iturbide MA-g Award (Finalist)
Collections
- Museum of Avant-garde, Switzerland
EDITIONS
Limited editions
Archival pigment prints on Hahnemühle German Etching
For availability and inquiries — instant@ericrugers.com
Archival pigment prints on Hahnemühle German Etching
For availability and inquiries — instant@ericrugers.com