Erik Grau, whose artwork is on exhibit inside the South End Library during November, moved to Boston a decade ago from Wisconsin to pursue a MFA in sculpture. In addition to his career as a visual artist, he works full time as a board-certified Behavior Analyst and Kindergarten Inclusion teacher at the Henry L. Higginson Inclusion School in Roxbury.

As a teacher, he found that the home environment became increasingly more important in his life. “The need for quiet stillness has motivated me to curate a home filled with objects of importance that, when viewed together, address repetition and order,” he says. His paintings focus on the positive energy associated with the crystals and minerals he collects. “They incorporate my specific interest in cats in the forms of accumulated knick-knacks and the depictions of my two companion animals,” the artist explains.

Grau holds an MFA from Boston University and a Master’s of Education from UMass, Lowell. His work is in the permanent collection of the Wisconsin Artists Collection in Waukesha, WI. His paintings and sculptures have been featured in a number of exhibits in the Midwest, as well as in art spaces on the East and West coasts.

He is a member of Boston’s Musa Collective, a gallery space on Braintree Street in Allston, owned and operated by artists. Most recently, Grau was the artist-in-residence at Room83Spring in Watertown, MA. He is the President of the Board of the Piano Craft Gallery, the Tremont Street artists community located in the former Chickering Piano Factory.