Liz Elton, Compost Bin Prints, £250 each, framed with non-reflective glass.
A series of editioned archival quality prints of images of the contents of the artist’s kitchen compost caddy, begun during lockdown, track food and flowers passing through the home, referencing historical still life painting. Recently Liz has discussed these and the role of compost in her practice on ‘Our Plant Stories’ podcast alongside gardener and writer Helen Hutchings-Cox.
Archival quality pigment prints on Hahnemuhle photo rag, 14.5x19cm, each an edition of 30, framed with non reflective glass. A £25 contribution to a food bank charity accompanies each sale.
Liz is the recipient of a Mark Rothko Memorial Trust Artist in Residence Award, and her work has been shown in the John Moores Painting Prize exhibition 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. Commissions include Hospital Rooms, with Kent and Medway Trust, and Unilever Archives. Solo and two person shows include ‘Takeaway’, Punta Gallery and Cable-Depot, Sofia, ‘Fragile Surface’ with Charlie Warde and Cable-Depot, Artissima, Turin, ‘Liz Elton and Effie Burns’, Kath Wood’s ‘Art at Home’, ‘Ground, Falling Away’, The Gunpowder Store, Daugavpils Fortress, Latvia, and ‘Yield’ at Gallery 163, Herne Hill. Recent group shows include the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2026, ‘Landscape: A Changed Environment’, Messums, Cork Street, London, London Art Fair 2026 with the Royal Society of Sculptors, ‘Cathedral’, HilbertRaum, Berlin, ‘Market of Desire’, Cable Depot, Sofia, Bulgaria, Hospital Rooms Digital Art School Installation and Auction, Hauser and Wirth, Savile Row, London, and 'Life Boat', APT, Deptford. She has a BA in History of Art (UCL), a BA in Painting (Wimbledon, UAL) and an MA in Fine Art (Chelsea, UAL). Liz is a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors, PSSA and Contemporary British Painting.
‘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
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 painting, 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.
[email protected]
lizelton.com (with video clips here)
@liz_elton
@compost_tales
A series of editioned archival quality prints of images of the contents of the artist’s kitchen compost caddy, begun during lockdown, track food and flowers passing through the home, referencing historical still life painting. Recently Liz has discussed these and the role of compost in her practice on ‘Our Plant Stories’ podcast alongside gardener and writer Helen Hutchings-Cox.
Archival quality pigment prints on Hahnemuhle photo rag, 14.5x19cm, each an edition of 30, framed with non reflective glass. A £25 contribution to a food bank charity accompanies each sale.
Liz is the recipient of a Mark Rothko Memorial Trust Artist in Residence Award, and her work has been shown in the John Moores Painting Prize exhibition 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. Commissions include Hospital Rooms, with Kent and Medway Trust, and Unilever Archives. Solo and two person shows include ‘Takeaway’, Punta Gallery and Cable-Depot, Sofia, ‘Fragile Surface’ with Charlie Warde and Cable-Depot, Artissima, Turin, ‘Liz Elton and Effie Burns’, Kath Wood’s ‘Art at Home’, ‘Ground, Falling Away’, The Gunpowder Store, Daugavpils Fortress, Latvia, and ‘Yield’ at Gallery 163, Herne Hill. Recent group shows include the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2026, ‘Landscape: A Changed Environment’, Messums, Cork Street, London, London Art Fair 2026 with the Royal Society of Sculptors, ‘Cathedral’, HilbertRaum, Berlin, ‘Market of Desire’, Cable Depot, Sofia, Bulgaria, Hospital Rooms Digital Art School Installation and Auction, Hauser and Wirth, Savile Row, London, and 'Life Boat', APT, Deptford. She has a BA in History of Art (UCL), a BA in Painting (Wimbledon, UAL) and an MA in Fine Art (Chelsea, UAL). Liz is a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors, PSSA and Contemporary British Painting.
‘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
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 painting, 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.
[email protected]
lizelton.com (with video clips here)
@liz_elton
@compost_tales