During his teenage years, Eric Tillinghast became interested in art—especially the medium of drawing. Although his imagery was initially representational, he eventually paired down his compositions to the most basic form: a single line. Following his studies abroad, Tillinghast returned to his home state of California. There, his style began to change. First, his drawings lost any sign of the figure, evolving into stark lines the color of steel. Soon he turned to steel itself as a medium, creating individual box-like constructions that he finished by engraving geometric lines and patterns onto their surfaces. Eventually, he began configuring his imagery into gridded compositions, such as Section Drawings. Tillinghast’s minimal drawings are emblematic of his attention to detail. Section Drawings is a series of fifteen images of circular segments. When presented altogether, the works force the viewer’s mind to comprehend visually the whole suggested by each of the arcs.

Label from Drawing: The Beginning of Everything, July 8–October 15, 2017