Elizabeth Glaessner

Artistic Profile

Style

Description

Densely layered, saturated compositions depicting fluid, metamorphosing figures in amorphous dreamlike landscapes. Combines formal articulation with non-representational gesture. Works balance between figuration and abstraction, inviting multiple readings.

Distinctive Elements

Poured pigment underlayers creating stained, atmospheric backgroundsOil paint layered over water-based pigments for material tensionAndrogynous, amorphous figures in states of becoming or undoingBold, high-key color fieldsHazy deep space with smoothly modelled volumesFigures and landscapes merging into one another

Evolution

Early Period 2014 2018

Initial explorations of mythological imagery with feminist urgency. Used diverse materials including dye-on-silk and sumi ink on rice paper alongside oil painting. Established core visual vocabulary of amorphous figures and gestural landscapes.

Middle Period 2019 2022

Deepened engagement with mythology and bodily metamorphosis. 'Phantom Tail' series explored protruding tailbone as metaphor for human animality. Technique became more refined with distinctive poured-pigment underlayers. Larger scale works.

Current Period 2024 2025

Greater focus on water as central metaphor and material strategy. 'Running Water' series uses aqueous themes to dissolve boundaries between body, landscape, memory, and present. Environmental consciousness emerges alongside personal mythology. Continued refinement of layered technique.

Influences

Cultural

MythologyFairy talesPop culturePsychoanalysisHouston/East Texas landscape and bayous

Art Historical

Edvard MunchErnst Ludwig KirchnerSymbolist paintingClassical mythologyCatholic iconography / memento mori traditionPre-Raphaelites

Contemporary Peers

Angela DufresneKyle StaverDoron Langberg

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Visual Language

Saturated color palettes shifting between hot and cool registers. Misty, vaporous atmospheres punctuated by intense chromatic passages. Figures emerge from and dissolve into their surroundings. The boundary between representation and abstraction is deliberately unstable.

Key Bodies of Work

Title	Year	Context
All this happened, more or less	2014	First solo at P·P·O·W
Mother Tongue	2018	Second P·P·O·W solo; Art in America review
Phantom Tail	2022	Third P·P·O·W solo; exploration of human animality and vestigial anatomy
Four Legs in a Garden	2022	First institutional solo at Consortium Museum, Dijon
Dead Leg	2022	First Perrotin solo, Paris
Head Games	2024	Perrotin Tokyo; intimate-scale paintings
Now you're a lake	2024	First François Ghebaly solo; threshold/liminal themes
Running Water	2025	Fourth P·P·O·W solo; water as central metaphor; environmental themes

Themes and Subjects

Primary Themes

Metamorphosis and bodily transformationMythology reinterpreted through feminist lensHuman-nature boundary dissolutionThe subconscious and psychological statesOtherness, trauma, and sexual desireBirth, death, creation, and regenerationMemory and childhood (especially East Texas landscapes)

Subject Matter

Figures (often female or androgynous) in surreal landscapes populated by mythological creatures, tricksters, and hybrid beings. Scenes drawn from art history, mythology, memory, and pop culture.

Recurring Motifs

Water and submersionAndrogynous figuresSphinxes and mythological creaturesSkulls / memento moriTails and vestigial anatomyLizards and animalsDoppelgängers

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Movements and Periods

Primary

Contemporary figurative painting with surrealist and symbolist influences

Associated Movements

Neo-SurrealismContemporary SymbolismFeminist figurative paintingNew Leipzig School adjacent (via LIAP residency)

Art Historical Lineage

Draws from the tradition of allegorical painting as advocated by the Alliance of Figurative Artists (1970s) and the New York Academy of Art tradition. Extends Symbolist painting into contemporary feminist discourse.

Techniques and Mediums

Scale

Ranges from intimate works on paper (14-18 inches) to large-scale canvases (up to 82 x 110 inches / ~208 x 280 cm)

Process

Begins intuitively by pouring preliminary colors onto flat surfaces. Uses stochastic mark-making and loose liquid shapes as underpinnings. Works wet-into-wet. Layers oil over poured pigments, allowing paint to interrupt narrative and make room for the subconscious. Uses sketches and small paintings as preparatory studies for larger compositions.

Other Mediums

Dye on silkSumi ink on rice paperWater-dispersed pigments with binders on canvasAcrylic on canvas

Primary Mediums

Oil on linenOil on canvasOil on polycottonOil on paper

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