Leandro Erlich: Seeing Is Not Believing

Conceptual artist Leandro Erlich creates visual paradoxes and optical illusions that force you to question your perception of reality. He renders everyday situations confounding—a staircase that misleads to go nowhere; an elevator that appears partially stuck below ground; a swimming pool that appears to reflect one group of onlookers above the water’s surface and a different group below.​

Seeing Is Not Believing features two of Erlich’s most iconic installations: Bâtiment (Façade) and Le cabinet du psy (The Psychoanalyst’s Office). These immersive, room-size environments and a selection of additional works span the career of the acclaimed Argentinean artist, whose psychological subversion of the everyday seems to defy the basic laws of physics while challenging your sense of balance, space, and the absolute.

Born in 1973, Erlich lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Montevideo, Uruguay. He was an artist-in-residence in the Glassell School of Art’s Core Program at the MFAH from 1997 to 1999. Seeing Is Not Believing serves as both a homecoming for him and a revelation for MFAH visitors.

Credit: Overview from museum website