Dave Eggers, the Artist

Dave Eggers, the Artist

This article relates to Contrapposto

The protagonist of Dave Eggers's novel Contrapposto is Cricket Dibb, a talented young man who wants a career as an artist. Throughout the book he relays his sheer bliss in creating a work of art he knows is good. In spite of his ability, he runs into roadblocks; galleries won't hang his work because they don't feel it's commercial enough.

Eggers writes convincingly about the joys and challenges an artist might face, in part because he himself once aspired to become a painter. He showed talent at an early age; in an interview with Juxtapoz, an art and culture magazine, he states that:

"When I was young, I was sent around to have extra enrichment training, because when I was seven or eight, some teacher said, 'This kid knows how to draw.' I was sent to the Japanese watercolorist who lived down the street for private lessons, and then I was sent to the somebody who would teach me drafting, then I would go down to the Art Institute of Chicago as a teenager to take night classes."

Those who have read Contrapposto may recognize parallels with Cricket's early training.

Eggers enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1988 to study journalism, but while there he continued taking art classes. He also worked as an editor, photographer, designer, and cartoonist for the school paper, The Daily Illini.

In 1992 both of his parents died from cancer just weeks apart, and he chose to leave school to take care of his younger brother, Toph, in Berkeley, California. To make ends meet, he took temporary jobs, freelanced as a graphic designer, and worked on a small, independent newspaper. He also made the decision to focus on his writing, abandoning most of his art projects.

His fictionalized memoir recounting this time, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, was a huge hit when it was published in 2000. It garnered several awards and was named to several prominent Best Book of the Year lists. From that point on Eggers became known as a writer. He remained active in the arts scene, however, and met Noah Lang, owner of the gallery Electric Works, in the early 2000s. Learning of his artistic talents, Lang invited Eggers to put on a show of his works for charity. Eggers accepted, and in 2010 the pair hosted "It Is Right to Draw Their Fur," a series of over 300 grease-pencil drawings depicting animals accompanied by a line of text (e.g., a weasel with the words, "My ancestors ate portions of your ancestors"). You can see all his artwork here.

Eggers's first solo museum exhibition occurred in 2015 at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno. Entitled "Insufferable Throne of God" after a line in Moby-Dick, it featured pieces drawn specifically for the museum, again centering on pictures of animals combined with text.

Also in 2015, the artist began a collaboration with metal sculptor Juan Martinez to create a sort of rideable animal-bike. Using pedicabs for the undercarriage, they combined fur, foam, and steel to create a vehicle capable of transporting an adult driver and several children passengers. The program, known as The Spirit of Animals Is in the Wheels, features bikes in the shape of a bear, pangolin, bison, and rhinoceros, and they've been touring United States art spaces, schools, and community venues since 2016.

Eggers continues to be best known for his works of fiction, but he still devotes time to his drawing as well. He's represented by Electric Works, and you can purchase prints of his work from their website. Proceeds go to ScholarMatch.org, a non-profit founded by Eggers that sends deserving students to college. Eggers is also dedicated to helping the next generation of artists; he and award-winning artist and filmmaker J.D. Beltran recently opened Art + Water, an arts organization and cultural hub in San Francisco. The nonprofit provides free studio space, art instruction, rotating exhibitions, and community programming.

Jacket of Ungrateful Mammals, a collection of Dave Eggers's artwork published in 2017 by Abrams Books

Filed under Books and Authors

This article relates to Contrapposto. It will run in the June 24, 2026 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.