About Erin

Erin Bird
Contemporary Artist, UK

Artist statement

From Erosion to Emergence

Water takes centuries to transform what it touches. My art honors that same patient shift—where the remnants of my past dissolve and give rise to something new and unexpected.

I harness water’s relentless flow to explore transformation, grief, and renewal.

Rooted in my heritage, I work through the tension between what is hidden and what is revealed—confronting my deepest vulnerabilities.

Showing a figurative work beside an abstract one isn’t a before-and-after; rather, I’m placing the vulnerable and the liberated side by side, allowing viewers to sense the interplay between.

For me, water is both a material and a metaphor—dissolving the past while offering the hope of reconciliation. By embracing its unpredictable movements, my work mirrors the dialogue between rational thought and the unconscious. Each piece becomes a kind of baptism, immersing personal and intergenerational narratives into a cycle of mourning and rebirth.

I developed an experimental technique I call “waterprinting,” submerging photographic prints so water can erode and reshape the images. Through this fluid process, once-representational photographs merge with painterly abstraction, echoing how memory slips and reforms over time.

Even the most stubborn substrate eventually yields to water’s slow, inexorable flow—offering a contemplative space where transformation and renewal become possible.

Engagements & Collaborations

Erin welcomes collaborations with forward-thinking galleries, art consultants, and interior designers who share her passion for bold, evocative art. She remains open to new opportunities that value creative excellence and artistic integrity, believing that her waterprints can resonate powerfully in diverse contemporary spaces.

Contact: erin@erinbird.art

CV

Press and highlights

Bio

Erin Bird (b. 1978) is an American-born artist based in the UK, known for her distinctive “waterprinting” process that blurs the boundaries between photography and painting. Born to Irish immigrants in Upstate New York, her work explores themes of transformation, memory, and displacement through the elemental force of water.

Bird holds an MA from the Royal College of Art and a BA from Camberwell College of Arts. Her work has been exhibited internationally—including at Bankside Gallery and the Moscow Museum of Modern Art—and is held in notable collections such as Fontainebleau Las Vegas, Hudson Yards NYC, and The Set in London. She has been shortlisted for the Jackson’s Painting Prize (2024), the Gilchrist-Fisher Award, and the Lumen Prize for Art & Technology.