Well-known fool-the-eye painter Gary T. Erbe is a self-taught artist from New Jersey, whose works depict pop culture from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. This exhibition showcases more than fifty of his trompe l'oeil paintings drawn from private and public collections. Gary Erbe (born in Union City, NJ in 1944- ) is internationally recognized for his realistic style of painting and has exhibited throughout the United States.

Trompe l'oeil (to fool the eye) is illusionist painting that dates back to ancient Rome, 17th-century Dutch painting, and 19th-century American painting. Erbe works in a painstaking technique building up layers of thin color glazes to achieve the illusion of real depth and volume in each painting. As exercises in virtuosity, many works take up to a year to complete. This forty-year retrospective presents Erbe's best works, including his collage paintings meticulously recorded from Erbe's own constructed and arranged tableaux.

Gary T. Erbe: Forty Year Retrospective has been organized by the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, and travels to The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, Albuquerque, New Mexico and New York City's Salmagundi Club.