About

Eugene Sarmiento is an artist and educator from Oak Cliff, Dallas, TX currently living in the Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Eugene received his BFA in Printmaking from the University of Texas at Arlington and his MFA in Printmaking and Drawing from the University of Kansas. He enjoys spending time in gardens smelling the roses and drawing them, currently listening to Turnstile and Sudan Archives in the studio, admiring the works of William Blake, and filling in his sketchbook with images of time’s perpetual existential dread.

Artist Statement 

My works on paper are based on moments of love in grief, longing, transcendental goodbyes and concepts of internalized mortality. Confined to my own iconography, I visualize memories and tribulations woven within the wells of joy and time’s existential grip on purpose. I personify many objects relating to markers of life such as heavy tombstones, dying suns, memories of has-been flowers, and the forever hauling heavy duty work truck. Moreover, I interpret joy and despondency as two sides to the same coin asking “how are we going to know what the good times are if we never have the bad times?”

My practice is built on ideologies of multiplicity, rapid dissemination through self publishing zines/printed ephemera, the flatness of printmaking, and the intimate gesture the hand offers in drawing.