Elizabeth Schwaiger

Overview

Elizabeth Schwaiger’s dwellings are densely populated, spectral, living spaces. Incandescent lighting enhances the panorama of these art and object filled interiors as well loved and lived in rooms.

Schwaiger’s painting practice is occupied by a deep fascination with the internal versus the external, and the way in which these boundaries blur within the body, space and time. The interior is often a starting point for Schwaiger. An abandoned household, quiet museum aisle or overflowing artist studio, the spaces she depicts invoke both the material and the ethereal. Energy is a central theme in her practice, which continually explores questions of womanhood, ecology, and the creative and destructive powers of Mother Nature. Expressive brushstrokes of watercolor, acrylic, ink and oil converge on the canvas to create rich compositions. Monochromatic palettes counterbalance this effervescence, completing Schwaiger’s atmospheric worlds in harmonious hues.

download artist BIO

download artist CV

Artist website

follow @elizabethschwaiger

Works

Biography

Portrait of Elizabeth Schwaiger by Martyna Szczesna

Share

b. 1985, Texas

Elizabeth Schwaiger lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received an MFA from Glasgow School of Art and a BA from the University of North Texas. She was a 2019 artist in residence at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in Captiva, Florida.

Schwaiger’s painting practice is occupied by a deep fascination with the internal versus the external, and the way in which these boundaries blur within the body, space and time. The interior is often a starting point for Schwaiger. An abandoned household, quiet museum aisle or overflowing artist studio, the spaces she depicts invoke both the material and the ethereal. Energy is a central theme in her practice, which continually explores questions of womanhood, ecology, and the creative and destructive powers of Mother Nature. Expressive brushstrokes of watercolor, acrylic, ink and oil converge on the canvas to create rich compositions. Monochromatic palettes counterbalance this effervescence, completing Schwaiger’s atmospheric worlds in harmonious hues.

Solo exhibitions include Now & Now & Now, Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York (2024); Pressing Shadows, Gana Art, Seoul (2023); From the Dark Sea, Jane Lombard, New York (2021) and Darkening Warmth, Co-Lab Projects, Austin, Texas (2020). Group exhibitions include The Selves, Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York (2024); Uncanny Interiors, Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York, NY (2022); Unheimlich, Anthem Gallery, San Antonio, TX (2018) and Mystery Portrait Gala, The National Portrait Gallery, London (2017).