Eli Blasko is an artist and designer based in Tucson, Arizona.
Primarily working in sculpture and extended media, his work ranges from investigating traditional craft and design techniques to devising expansive conceptual interventions into the lives of objects. He also designs and fabricates highly detailed constructions for public, commercial, and gallery settings. Many of his projects begin as research-based inquiries into the history of objects, images, and geographies.
Eli received his MFA from Western Carolina University, a BFA from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania , and also studied in the Studio of Intermedia+ at The Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia. Additionally, he holds credentials as a craft instructor in carpentry and welding from the National Center for Construction Education Research.
He has been an artist-in-residence with Touchstone Center for Craft, The Paducah Arts Alliance, Hub-Bub, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, The Charles Adams Studio Project, and Sculpture Space Inc. From 2016-19 he founded and operated Bannan Blasko, an arts + media agency that designed and executed dozens of large-scale commercial art projects and creative campaigns throughout the Southeastern U.S. His clients have included Adidas, Amazon, Kohler, Milliken & Company, and Smartwool, as well as numerous smaller, regional businesses.
His recent projects include showing work for the 2023 Arizona Biennial at the Tucson Museum of Art, mounting solo shows at Revolve Asheville and the Western Carolina Fine Art Museum, and exhibiting public works with the Damyang International Arts Festival (South Korea) and the North Carolina Arboretum. His ongoing series of meticulously-designed map forgeries, Phantom Islands, was recently selected to be published in the 2023 issue of you are here: the journal of creative geography, published by the School of Geography, Development & Environment at the University of Arizona.
For additional information or project inquires, please contact: eli.blasko@gmail.com
Photo: Julius Scholsburg