Erika Diamond was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1978, the daughter of two ballet dancers. Since receiving a BFA in Sculpture from Rhode Island School of Design in 2000, she has exhibited in New York, California, North Carolina, New Jersey, and Germany.
Often using natural and discarded materials like grass, onion skin and her own hair, Erika’s sculpture and drawing focus on the close connection between the self and the surrounding world as well as the human compulsion to control them both. Underlying this concept is a formal investigation into the paradox of containment and release. She is intrigued by the threshold between the inside and the outside, between holding and letting go, and between emptiness and excess. She creates shells of objects, vessels whose forms recall their contents or record an action.
Her newest work is a series of costumes made from recyclable materials commissioned in 2009 by North Carolina Dance Theater. They mark a shift in material choice. However, they relay a similar compulsion to reassemble a discarded material and relate it to the body. Her work has been heavily influenced by the body, its mechanics and potential for expression, as well as the travel she has experienced to places like Germany, Italy and Kazakstan.
In 2004 Erika created Sula’s Chocolates™ a specialty chocolate company in Charlotte, NC using the food industry as an alternative method for expression. She was invited in 2006 by the Bechtler family to have a studio at the Little Italy Peninsula Arts Center in Mount Holly, NC until its closing in 2010. Erika currently lives and works in Charlotte, NC.
