Eric Oglander: Curator of the Mundane, Visionary of the Digital Age
In an era where the digital scroll defines everything from fashion to fine art, Eric Oglander (b. 1987, Nashville, TN) has emerged as a modern-day alchemist, transforming the banal into the extraordinary. With quiet charisma and an unassuming presence, Oglander doesn’t concern himself with painting grand canvases or carving elaborate sculptures; instead, he captures the world through a lens that challenges our perception of beauty and meaning in the everyday. The contemporary artist, who has become a quiet yet powerful force in the art world, invites us to look deeper at what’s in front of us — even when it’s something as simple as a mirror for sale on Craigslist.
Oglander’s meteoric rise to prominence began with an idea as unconventional as it was brilliantly timed. His now-iconic Craigslist Mirrors project launched him into the public eye, assembling found images of mirrors posted for sale on Craigslist. In these seemingly mundane reflections, Oglander uncovered hidden poetry — accidental compositions where the mirror becomes secondary to the world it captures within its frame: cluttered bedrooms, half-obscured people, and intimate traces of unknown lives. By doing so, Oglander transformed discarded digital images into meditations on presence and absence, prompting us to reconsider what it means to live in an age where identity is fractured and refracted through countless screens.
“The internet is like a vast archive of forgotten things,” Oglander mused in a recent interview. “I’m just selecting what already exists but may not be seen correctly.” That single line sums up the essence of Oglander’s artistic genius — he doesn’t just find images; he reveals them. His project began with innocent curiosity but evolved into a deeper exploration of the everyday and how objects, environments, and people unwittingly reveal more than they intend in the digital age. Oglander’s work echoes Andy Warhol’s fascination with consumer culture but adds a 21st-century twist, exploring how the internet creates strange new contexts for everything, from the personal to the political.
As a child growing up in Nashville, Oglander was drawn to the offbeat and the overlooked. Early on, he cultivated a deep interest in objects — old, forgotten things he’d come across in flea markets, yard sales, and antique shops. He describes these moments as formative: “I’ve always been fascinated by things that are out of place, slightly wrong, or just a little off. That’s where the magic is.” This sense of curiosity and wonder has remained a cornerstone of his practice, guiding him from childhood through art school and into the unconventional world of internet-found art.
While Craigslist Mirrors may have been his entry into the art world, Oglander is far from a one-note artist. His practice has evolved to embrace the realms of physical sculpture, installation, and conceptual work. In his recent exhibition, Object Permanence, Oglander pushed his exploration of found objects further, deconstructing everyday materials to challenge viewers’ perceptions of value and worth in a throwaway culture. The installation featured a series of fragmented objects — each rendered almost unrecognizable as though caught in the act of becoming or disintegrating, depending on the viewer’s perspective. It’s a powerful commentary on how we assign meaning to the things around us, suggesting that even in an era of mass production, objects still carry emotional weight, histories, and narratives.
His ability to blur the lines between photography, sculpture, and found art has drawn the attention of collectors, curators, and influencers alike. Though deeply intellectual in concept, Oglander’s work also feels playful and is rooted in humor and irony, making it both accessible and profound. His work speaks to our moment in time, where the boundary between the physical and digital worlds has all but dissolved, and our perception of reality itself feels fractured.
It is perhaps this ability to navigate such contradictions — permanence and ephemerality, irony and sincerity, art and artifact — that makes Oglander so compelling. At a time when the art world feels driven by spectacle, Oglander offers an antidote. His art is one of quiet reflection, paying attention to the overlooked, the accidental, and the imperfect. His work invites us to pause, consider, and question what we truly value in a world saturated with images, information, and objects.
Behind Oglander’s disarmingly simple approach lies a rigor and conceptual depth that has earned him followers and deep respect within the art world. His work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions across the U.S., and pieces from the Craigslist Mirrors project have entered the collections of major museums and private collectors alike. As he continues to evolve his practice, Oglander is poised to leave a lasting imprint on contemporary art as a bridge between the digital age and a more analog, reflective way of seeing the world.
Despite his success, Oglander remains refreshingly down-to-earth. In interviews, he speaks with humility about his practice, often shrugging off praise as if he were surprised by the attention his work has garnered. “I just love things that feel a little off-kilter, like they’ve escaped perfection,” he says with a smile, dressed in his signature flannel and jeans. Yet, beneath the modesty lies a sharp mind — constantly searching for the extraordinary within the ordinary and for those fleeting moments when the digital and physical worlds unexpectedly collide.
As contemporary art continues to navigate the complexities of the digital age, Eric Oglander stands at the forefront — a quiet revolutionary. His work forces us to look twice, confront what we take for granted, and question what it means to live in a time when reality feels increasingly elusive. In a world of Instagram likes and fast-paced media consumption, Oglander’s art provides a pause — a reminder to slow down and truly see what is before us.
Perhaps that’s why his work continues to resonate so profoundly; it reflects a world we all live in but rarely stop to notice. As we scroll endlessly through our feeds, Eric Oglander invites us to look again, and in doing so, rediscover the art that surrounds us every day.
