Liz Elton considers the question how to go on? Beginning in landscape and still-life painting, expanding into 3D to explore the potential of waste and the recycling of matter. Her works embrace their own ephemerality and may address environmental issues such as the connection between soil health and food waste and shifts in ecological thinking. Her emotionally charged works take their initial references from landscapes and the body, images of agricultural landscapes from the air and of her own skin. She often uses compostable cornstarch as a ground (the material used for food waste recycling bags), colouring it with vegetable dyes from kitchen waste intercepted on its way to compost and embedding seeds of vegetables and medicinal plants. Her large installations gain a contemplative quality as they move gently as the air moves around them, different each time they are shown, as they gradually disintegrate. In 2020 lockdown she began a series of limited edition prints of images of her compost bin referencing historical still-life painting. Liz has a BA in Fine Art (Painting) from Wimbledon College of Art, and an MA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art and Design. She completed a Hospital Rooms commission, is the recipient of a Mark Rothko Memorial Trust Artist in Residence Award, Daugavpils, Latvia, has been shortlisted for the John Moores Painting Prize three times and her work was awarded special commendation in Dentons Art Prize 2018. Her installations, paintings and photographs have been shown widely, and her work is included in public and private collections in the UK and internationally.
News:
I recently completed a commission for arts and mental health charity Hospital Rooms and Kent and Medway NHS Trust. Hospital Rooms' fundraising auction will take place at Bonhams in September. Two cushions I made with the left over materials from the commission are included in an installation 'Holding Space' at Hauser and Wirth, Savile Row, London and will be auctioned as part of the fundraising for this amazing charity. For all the lots available see www.hospital-rooms.com (includes a link to Bonhams site)
I have at last been able to take up the Mark Rothko Memorial Trust Artist-in Residence, at the Mark Rothko Art Centre, Daugavpils, Latvia, August 2022, awarded 2020. Its been a fantastic experience alongside fellow residents Andrew Bick, Vanessa Mitter and Danny Rolph
'Market' selected for 'Curated II, Womxn' at Unit 1 Gallery and Workshop, by Jo Baring and Beth Greenacre from Fair Art Fair
Interview for 'Friday Focus' with Parapluiearts
'Acre (Gleaned Series, Number 2)' included in Hospital Rooms fundraising auction at Hauser & Wirth, Savile Row, September 2021
'Tender' selected for John Moores Painting Prize Exhibition 2020, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Feb-June 2021, selected by Michelle Williams Gamaker, Jennifer Higgie, Gu Wenda, Hurvin Anderson, Alison Goldfrapp
Studio visit by DATEAGLE ART. Text and photography by Anna Souter.
Sustainability First Art Prize, 2020 (second prize). Please see Sustainability First for details. Judging panel included Jeremy Till, Kate Bryan, Tabish Khan, Geraldine Cox, Sam Gare, Jo de Montgros, Phil Barton
Mark Rothko Memorial Trust Artist-in-Residence Award 2020 (Daugavpils, Latvia). Selected by Paul Huxley, Tim Marlow, Rebecca Salter and Laura Culpan
Special Commendation, Dentons Art Prize 7 curated by Niamh White and Tim A Shaw, awarded by judging panel Mark Titchner (Artist), Elizabeth Neilson (Director Zabludowicz Collection) and Patrick Morey-Burrows (Art Source), June 2019
'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
John Moores Painting Prize Exhibition 2018 artists announced:
www.artlyst.com/news/longlist-announced-john-moores-60th-anniversary-painting-prize-2018/
28th April-10th June 2016 Pool at Griffin Gallery paintunion.blogspot.co.uk/
Bibliography:
'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
News:
I recently completed a commission for arts and mental health charity Hospital Rooms and Kent and Medway NHS Trust. Hospital Rooms' fundraising auction will take place at Bonhams in September. Two cushions I made with the left over materials from the commission are included in an installation 'Holding Space' at Hauser and Wirth, Savile Row, London and will be auctioned as part of the fundraising for this amazing charity. For all the lots available see www.hospital-rooms.com (includes a link to Bonhams site)
I have at last been able to take up the Mark Rothko Memorial Trust Artist-in Residence, at the Mark Rothko Art Centre, Daugavpils, Latvia, August 2022, awarded 2020. Its been a fantastic experience alongside fellow residents Andrew Bick, Vanessa Mitter and Danny Rolph
'Market' selected for 'Curated II, Womxn' at Unit 1 Gallery and Workshop, by Jo Baring and Beth Greenacre from Fair Art Fair
Interview for 'Friday Focus' with Parapluiearts
'Acre (Gleaned Series, Number 2)' included in Hospital Rooms fundraising auction at Hauser & Wirth, Savile Row, September 2021
'Tender' selected for John Moores Painting Prize Exhibition 2020, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Feb-June 2021, selected by Michelle Williams Gamaker, Jennifer Higgie, Gu Wenda, Hurvin Anderson, Alison Goldfrapp
Studio visit by DATEAGLE ART. Text and photography by Anna Souter.
Sustainability First Art Prize, 2020 (second prize). Please see Sustainability First for details. Judging panel included Jeremy Till, Kate Bryan, Tabish Khan, Geraldine Cox, Sam Gare, Jo de Montgros, Phil Barton
Mark Rothko Memorial Trust Artist-in-Residence Award 2020 (Daugavpils, Latvia). Selected by Paul Huxley, Tim Marlow, Rebecca Salter and Laura Culpan
Special Commendation, Dentons Art Prize 7 curated by Niamh White and Tim A Shaw, awarded by judging panel Mark Titchner (Artist), Elizabeth Neilson (Director Zabludowicz Collection) and Patrick Morey-Burrows (Art Source), June 2019
'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
John Moores Painting Prize Exhibition 2018 artists announced:
www.artlyst.com/news/longlist-announced-john-moores-60th-anniversary-painting-prize-2018/
28th April-10th June 2016 Pool at Griffin Gallery paintunion.blogspot.co.uk/
Bibliography:
'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