‘Elton asks us to do the work of staying with the grief as something non-linear and inherently connected to the processes and ecological cycles of life. Compost-like, her metamorphic practice generously opens up a space between letting go and holding on, a site for conversations and continuations.’ Anna Souter, 2025
'a floaty, beautiful assemblage of painted compostable food-recycling bags that resembles an aerial picture of the British agrarian landscape if it looked really like a Hockney painting' 'Liverpool Biennial: Beautiful Merseyside, where worlds collide', Nancy Durrant, The Times, July 13th 2018
Liz Elton’s practice considers issues of waste, compost and the recycling of matter. She explores loss and grief; potential and hope; nourishment and care; environment and temporality. Her work is grounded in landscape and still life painting and she employs a wide range of media, from photography, video and print to large-scale sculptural installation.
Her installations are often site-specific and include the innovative use of compostable materials such as cornstarch grounds which are loosely sewn together with silk, coloured with kitchen waste and water miscible paints. While the work will naturally decay and decompose over time it is often embedded with soil and seeds of medicinal plants, vegetables or cover crops suggesting growth, nurture and the potential for new life. In lockdown Liz began a series of photographs of the contents of her kitchen waste bin, referencing historical still-life painting. These are available as editioned prints and each sale includes a contribution to a food bank charity.
Liz is the recipient of a Mark Rothko Memorial Trust Artist in Residence Award and has been shortlisted for the John Moores three times. She has been artist in residence at Florence Trust, Groundswell Regenerative Farming Festival, and on the Isle of Eigg at the Bothy Project, supported by Winsor and Newton. Recent shows include London Art Fair 2026 with TM Lighting & Royal Society of Sculptors, 'Landscape, a changing environment', Messums, London, 'Cathedral', Hilbertraum, Berlin, ‘Cure3’ 2025 (in support of cure Parkinson’s), Bonhams, London, ‘Market of Desire’, Cable Depot, Sofia, Bulgaria, 'Landscape Painting Now', Messums, Cork Street, London, Hospital Rooms Digital Art School Installation and Auction, Hauser and Wirth, Savile Row, London, and 'Life Boat', APT, Deptford. Solo shows include 'Takeaway', Punta Gallery and Cable-Depot, Sofia, Bulgaria, ‘Work in Progress', Fitzrovia Gallery, London, ‘Ground, Falling Away’, The Gunpowder Store, Daugavpils Fortress, Rothko Museum, Latvia and ‘Liz Elton’, Art Centre, Harris, Outer Hebrides. Two person shows include 'Fragile Surface' with Charlie Warde, Cable-Depot, Artissima, Turin, Liz Elton and Effie Burns’ at Kath Wood’s ‘Art at Home’, and ‘Yield’ at Gallery 163, Herne Hill.
Bibliography:
Contemporary British Painting, Artist of the Month interview with Paul Newman, 2026
'Renewal' by Anna Souter, 2025
Takeaway text by Boyana Dzhikova to accompany solo show at Punta Gallery & Cable Depot, Sofia, 2025
'Friday Focus' with Parapluiearts
John Moores Painting Prize Catalogue, 2020, ISBN: 978-1-902700-62-5
Podcast ArtFictions by Jillian Knipe 'Earthly Nourishment and Landscape Potential', March 2021
Studio visit by DATEAGLE ART. Text and photography by Anna Souter.
Sustainability First Art Prize - e book and website
UCL's 'Big Compost Experiment' blog 'Meet the Artist - Liz Elton' 2020
'Fragments of a Whole Unknown', Jillian Knipe, 2019
Interview with Hector Campbell in conjunction with 'Yield' at 163 Gallery, 2019
Dentons Art Prize 7 Catalogue, 2019
John Moores Painting Prize Catalogue, 2018, ISBN: 978-1-902700-60-1
Florence Trust Catalogue, 2018, with an essay by curator Tyler Woolcott
The Performativity of Painting, Stephen Lawrence Gallery, Catalogue, 2017, ISBN: 978-0-9569698-5-9
Control to Collapse, Blyth Gallery, Catalogue, 2017
Make A Mark, 30 Female Painters photographed by Barry Bliss, 2017, ISBN: 978-0-9935974-1-1
Pool, Griffin Gallery, Catalogue, 2016, ISBN: 978-0-9954639-0-5
John Moores Painting Prize Catalogue, 2012, ISBN: 978-1-902700-46-5
'a floaty, beautiful assemblage of painted compostable food-recycling bags that resembles an aerial picture of the British agrarian landscape if it looked really like a Hockney painting' 'Liverpool Biennial: Beautiful Merseyside, where worlds collide', Nancy Durrant, The Times, July 13th 2018
Liz Elton’s practice considers issues of waste, compost and the recycling of matter. She explores loss and grief; potential and hope; nourishment and care; environment and temporality. Her work is grounded in landscape and still life painting and she employs a wide range of media, from photography, video and print to large-scale sculptural installation.
Her installations are often site-specific and include the innovative use of compostable materials such as cornstarch grounds which are loosely sewn together with silk, coloured with kitchen waste and water miscible paints. While the work will naturally decay and decompose over time it is often embedded with soil and seeds of medicinal plants, vegetables or cover crops suggesting growth, nurture and the potential for new life. In lockdown Liz began a series of photographs of the contents of her kitchen waste bin, referencing historical still-life painting. These are available as editioned prints and each sale includes a contribution to a food bank charity.
Liz is the recipient of a Mark Rothko Memorial Trust Artist in Residence Award and has been shortlisted for the John Moores three times. She has been artist in residence at Florence Trust, Groundswell Regenerative Farming Festival, and on the Isle of Eigg at the Bothy Project, supported by Winsor and Newton. Recent shows include London Art Fair 2026 with TM Lighting & Royal Society of Sculptors, 'Landscape, a changing environment', Messums, London, 'Cathedral', Hilbertraum, Berlin, ‘Cure3’ 2025 (in support of cure Parkinson’s), Bonhams, London, ‘Market of Desire’, Cable Depot, Sofia, Bulgaria, 'Landscape Painting Now', Messums, Cork Street, London, Hospital Rooms Digital Art School Installation and Auction, Hauser and Wirth, Savile Row, London, and 'Life Boat', APT, Deptford. Solo shows include 'Takeaway', Punta Gallery and Cable-Depot, Sofia, Bulgaria, ‘Work in Progress', Fitzrovia Gallery, London, ‘Ground, Falling Away’, The Gunpowder Store, Daugavpils Fortress, Rothko Museum, Latvia and ‘Liz Elton’, Art Centre, Harris, Outer Hebrides. Two person shows include 'Fragile Surface' with Charlie Warde, Cable-Depot, Artissima, Turin, Liz Elton and Effie Burns’ at Kath Wood’s ‘Art at Home’, and ‘Yield’ at Gallery 163, Herne Hill.
Bibliography:
Contemporary British Painting, Artist of the Month interview with Paul Newman, 2026
'Renewal' by Anna Souter, 2025
Takeaway text by Boyana Dzhikova to accompany solo show at Punta Gallery & Cable Depot, Sofia, 2025
'Friday Focus' with Parapluiearts
John Moores Painting Prize Catalogue, 2020, ISBN: 978-1-902700-62-5
Podcast ArtFictions by Jillian Knipe 'Earthly Nourishment and Landscape Potential', March 2021
Studio visit by DATEAGLE ART. Text and photography by Anna Souter.
Sustainability First Art Prize - e book and website
UCL's 'Big Compost Experiment' blog 'Meet the Artist - Liz Elton' 2020
'Fragments of a Whole Unknown', Jillian Knipe, 2019
Interview with Hector Campbell in conjunction with 'Yield' at 163 Gallery, 2019
Dentons Art Prize 7 Catalogue, 2019
John Moores Painting Prize Catalogue, 2018, ISBN: 978-1-902700-60-1
Florence Trust Catalogue, 2018, with an essay by curator Tyler Woolcott
The Performativity of Painting, Stephen Lawrence Gallery, Catalogue, 2017, ISBN: 978-0-9569698-5-9
Control to Collapse, Blyth Gallery, Catalogue, 2017
Make A Mark, 30 Female Painters photographed by Barry Bliss, 2017, ISBN: 978-0-9935974-1-1
Pool, Griffin Gallery, Catalogue, 2016, ISBN: 978-0-9954639-0-5
John Moores Painting Prize Catalogue, 2012, ISBN: 978-1-902700-46-5