Exhibition Statement
Fairyland is a solo presentation of new work by Erika Jaeggli. The series began with loose watercolors made inside Carlsbad Caverns National Park, where Jaeggli was an artist-in-residence in the spring of 2026. The exhibition takes its title from a location within the cavern’s famed Big Room, while also evoking the strange beauty, whimsy, and otherworldliness of the subterranean landscape.
Mounted onto wood panels and layered with oil paint, the watercolors move away from direct observation toward memory and imagination. Rather than depicting specific formations or places, the works emerge from the felt experience of being underground—immersed in darkness, disoriented by scale, and surrounded by forms that seem at once geological, bodily, and fantastical.
Artist Biography
Erika Jaeggli (born in Baltimore, MD) is a Dallas-based artist whose practice centers on the exploration and research of cave systems. Working across painting, digital photography, and installation, she investigates alternative perspectives of landscape through the lens of caves.
Jaeggli earned a B.A. in Art History from Columbia University, an M.A. from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Interactive Telecommunications Program, and an M.F.A. in Drawing and Painting from the University of North Texas. Her work has been exhibited in Texas, Florida, California, Maryland, Arkansas, and Missouri, and has been featured in Southwest Contemporary, New American Paintings and Studio Visit Magazine.
She has participated in residencies at Cuttyhunk Island, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Jentel Foundation, VCCA Moulin à Nef, and forthcoming Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Jaeggli is a recipient of the Dozier Travel Grant from the Dallas Museum of Art and a TACA Pop-Up Grant.
In addition to her studio practice, Jaeggli serves on the advisory council of Texas Vignette, a nonprofit supporting women in the arts in Texas. She has taught at the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of North Texas, and the University of Texas at Arlington, and has led art education programs at the Nasher Sculpture Center, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and the Kimbell Art Museum. She is currently a lecturer at Dallas College. In addition to her art practice, she is an active caver and a member of the National Speleological Society and DFW Grotto.
Artist Statement
My artistic practice is rooted in the exploration and research of caves. I’ve been fascinated by the idea of caves since growing up on Caves Road, and for the past five years I have been caving in Mexico, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. My visual research is informed by caves on a physical and conceptual level. Caves are nature’s abstractions: their formations and channels disorient our understanding of landscape and space. Conceptually, seeing the earth from the inside offers a unique worldview. Entering a dark, unknown space to encounter greater knowledge mirrors the artistic process where darkness becomes a medium of vision. Encountering the unknown serves as a literal and metaphorical starting point for me and my process of working. In part, as a response to the tradition of landscape painting, in which a singular point of view translated to dominion and ownership of the land, I am interested in presenting multiple points of view and entry through which to consider the land. While cave entrances have defined boundaries, the space beneath the surface does not.
My process begins in the cave and ends in the studio. While on site, I observe the natural formations, the interplay of light and shadow, and investigate the ways in which sculptural forms emerge from geological processes. This field research serves as the bedrock for my studio practice and consists of photography, videography, LiDAR scanning, as well as more traditional methods of drawing, writing, and painting. Once I have conducted my research, I work intuitively to produce a body of work. My practice consists of making paintings using oil paint, digital prints, beeswax, oil paint and pastel.
