Eric Leiser — Director | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

Eric Leiser is an award-winning artist, experimental filmmaker, animator, holographer, puppeteer, writer, and former funeral director working in New York and born in California. An alumni of CalArt’s Experimental Animation program and the Fine Art program, Eric creates animated and live action feature films and shorts as well as intricate works integrating animation, puppetry, painting, holography, live performance and installation.

Eric has made 4 feature films to date, Faustbook, Imagination, Glitch in the Grid and Apocalypsis. The upcoming 5th animated feature film Twilight Park is in production. Along with feature films, 70 short films ranging from 1997 to present, mostly compose the artist's filmography. Eric's brother and frequent collaborator Jeffrey Leiser created the music and sound design for the four features and 70 short films with a few exceptions. The Leiser Brothers share the writing credits for feature films Imagination and Twilight Park with the addition of collaborator Maude Swift. Eric is also a well known holographer and fine artist, a plethora of books on contemporary art, animation and physics/optics have included chapters on the artist's work. Eric's work is part of the permanent collection of the EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, NL and over 50 film collections worldwide including fine artworks.

Recent solo exhibitions include Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, Binálé Video Art Biennial in Budapest, Roswell Museum in Roswell, NM, Centro Multimeios Museum and Planetarium in Porto, Filmhuis Cavia in Amsterdam, the Horse Hospital in London, Holocenter Museum in New York, Exploratorium Museum and Shapeshifters Cinema in the Bay Area, Galerie du Haut Pave Gallery in Paris, Galerie Entropia in Poland, Fringe Exhibitions Gallery and MaRS Gallery in Los Angeles, Sound of MU Gallery in Oslo, Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and Goldsmiths, University of London. Group exhibitions include The Whitney Museum of American Art, Katrupgårdsamlingen Museum in Copenhagen, Mass MOCA, The MIT Museum, MOMus Museum in Thessaloniki, The Ruben H. Fleet Space Museum, Art MûR Gallery, Spencer Brownstone Gallery, Cabinet Magazine among others. His animated/live action films have been shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the MIT Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum of Modern Art Antwerp, The Istanbul Modern Museum of Art, MOMus Museum, MASS MoCA, Four-Dimensions Space Art Museum Beijing, Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas Museum de Buenos Aires, Roswell Museum, Aster Arts Plaza Hiroshima, The Wexner Center, (BFI) British Film Institute, Anthology Film Archives, Los Angeles Filmforum, Shapeshifters Cinema, No Name Cinema, San Francisco Film Society, Oxford University, Goldsmiths-University of London, Royal College of Art, Harvard University, California Institute of the Arts, The Art Institute in Chicago, The New School, Pratt Institute and the Central Academy of Fine Arts Beijing. Select film festivals include the Cannes Film Festival, Annecy International Animation Festival, Hiroshima International Animation Festival and the Cinanima Animation Festival.

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