About

Born and raised in the quiet, rural town of Waynesboro, PA, Eric Rottcher came of age far from any traditional art scene—a distance both literal and cultural—that shaped the idiosyncratic vision he brings to his mixed media collage work. Now based in Bethesda, MD, Rottcher creates pieces that, at their core, are autobiographical—equal parts excavation and provocation. He earned his BFA with and a concentration in Aesthetic Philosophy from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania in 2011, thus laying the groundwork for a visual language rooted in Absurdist and Existentialist thought.

Rottcher calls himself a “lowbrow fine artist”—a label that captures his irreverence and refusal to smooth over complexity. His work thrives on contradiction: beauty and decay, clarity and confusion, humor and heartbreak. It’s deeply tied to lived experience—addiction, legal entanglements, and the lingering trauma of his mother’s brain aneurysm. Through found imagery, torn surfaces, and recurring symbols like party hats, teeth, and wilted flowers, private memory becomes universal metaphor.

Eric avoids neat narratives, preferring ambiguity and dissonance. “I’m not here to explain anything,” he says. “I’m simply trying to figure out what secrets I’ve been keeping from myself.” That ethos runs through his work, urging viewers to slow down and sit with what lingers beneath the surface.

With pieces held in private collections across the U.S. and abroad, and a growing list of solo and group shows, Rottcher continues building a practice rooted in honesty, discomfort, and catharsis. His mixed media works aren’t about answers—they’re an unburdening. Each one is a visual confessional, a stage where private grief and absurdity become uncomfortably public.