Gary Erbe papers, circa 1968-2006

Gary Erbe (1944-) is a painter who works primarily in Union City, New Jersey.

Gary Erbe was born in Union City, New Jersey and is a self-taught artist and oil painter who is best known for his trompe l'oeil style paintings. Erbe's interest in art began when he became fascinated by his school's textbook illustrations. His stepfather was a main supporter of his art, and following his stepfather's death Erbe produced very little art.

When he turned sixteen, Erbe dropped out of high school and moved into an apartment in Weehawken, New Jersey where he met his first wife Edny whom he married in 1963 and with whom he had two children, one of which was contemporary artist Chantell Van Erbé. To support his family he worked as an apprentice at an engraving company and painted in his spare time, teaching himself. Erbe was particularly inspired by William Michael Harnett and John F. Peto who applied a trompe l'oeil approach to their paintings. In 1969, Erbe explored Levitational Realism, a more contemporary method to trompe l'oeil. In 1978 he divorced Edny and moved into his own studio in Union City where he met his second wife, local artist Anna Vedovelli, who he then divorced three years later. By 1996, Erbe married Zeny Santos and they lived in his studio in Union City before moving to Hoboken, New Jersey, and finally to Nutley, New jersey.

Since 1970 Erbe's work has been exhibited extensively in museums such as the Canton Museum of Art, the Brinton Museum, the Boca Raton Museum of Art, the Heckscher Museum of Art, the Baum School of Art, and the Reading Public Museum among others. His work is also in the permanent collections of various renowned institutions including The Phillips Collection, The Butler Institute of American Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 2016 the Butler Institute of American Art published the book Footprints: The Art and Life of Gary Erbe.

Erbe is currently living in Nutley, New Jersey where he maintains a studio and continues to paint.