CONTACT INFO:
Website: www.ericarmusik.com
Born in 1973, fine artist Eric Armusik grew up in the northeastern coal region of Pennsylvania. Once one of the largest coal mining operations in the county, his hometown was a landscape riddled with the depressions of post-industry. In contrast to the blight was a diverse ethnic community strong in faith. What the community lacked in public art and museums it made up for it with churches on each city block. It was there that Eric had his first experiences with art, staring at the walls and ceilings at church on Sunday. The traditions and academic realism of Catholic religious paintings and artwork made a permanent impression that continues to influence his work today.
Eric attended Pennsylvania State University, where he earned a B. F. A. in painting, with and a minor in an art history focusing on Baroque art. In 1995 he received the Margaret Giffen Shoenfelder Memorial Scholarship for the Arts and finished his art history minor abroad for a semester in Todi, Italy. During his art classes there he drew from original paintings, architecture and sculptures by the old masters such as Michaelangelo, Bernini, Caravaggio, Rubens and Donatello. The rare opportunity to study masterworks by Baroque painters Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi had a profound effect on the quality of his work and focused the inspiration he experienced as a child. After years of learning the techniques of the old masters, Eric honed his skills at the Studio Incamminati.
In 2003, Eric was selected to represent the United States in Florence, Italy at the Biennale Internazionale Dell Arte Contemporanea where he exhibited several of his paintings. Eric has been a finalist in three Art Renewal Center International Salons and won the Chairman's Award for the Sixth International Salon. In 2012 his painting of St. Jacques Berthieu was displayed in the Italian Embassy in Washington DC and then in Rome to celebrate the canonization of the saint. In 2015 Eric's work was selected as a finalist for the Figurativas International Painting Competition in Barcelona, Spain. Eric conducts several workshops in his studio on traditional painting each year and has attracted students from around the world that come to study with him. Currently, he's an Artist Ambassador for Jerry's Artarama and regularly demos and reviews their art materials.
In September 2016, Eric began his largest project to date. He'll be painting 40 large 4ft x 5ft panels of Dante's Inferno with the assistance of renowned Dante Scholar, Christopher Kleinhenz. A book of the paintings, along with in-depth narratives by Professor Kleinhenz, will be published once the series is completed.
Eric's work has been featured in such galleries and museums as the Salmagundi Art Club and the National Arts Club in New York; Allentown Art Museum; Philip and Muriel Berman Art Museum; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, IN; State Museum of Pennsylvania; and Reading Public Museum to name a few. His paintings are in the permanent collections of Howard Tullman, The Trenton City Museum, The National Shrine of Czestochowa USA, Lehigh Valley Hospital and numerous churches private collections worldwide.
His artwork has been prominently featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, American Artist Magazine, American Art Collector, Fine Art Connoisseur, The Huffington Post, Victorian Homes, and Old House Journal. Eric's work is represented by The Sacred Art Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ.
Eric is married to his soulmate, novelist Rebekah Armusik, and they have three beautiful children.
