Liz Markus' paintings are heavily influenced by the raw aesthetic of punk and grunge culture, along with other cultural influences that run beside Generation X; she paints frenetically, often working on multiple pieces at once, producing work that lends everyday ephemera a psychedelic presence.
Markus' process is intuitive, often inspired by continuing points of interest that have included: dinosaurs, hippies, cavemen, socialites, witches, monsters, and fashion.
Markus is interested in the tension between psychological repression and liberation and, as she sees the subconscious mind as the main driving force behind good painting, tries to allow the hidden mind to guide her work as much as possible. Markus uses bold and colorful washes of acrylic paint usually on unprimed canvas. Her technique and thoughts about art evolved from hanging out at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery while growing up in Buffalo NY and absorbing the work of the Abstract Expressionists, Stain Painters, and Pop Artists that are so prominent in their collection.
STUDIO
Liz Markus in her studio, 2020
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Markus lives and works in Los Angeles.
She had solo exhibitions at Maruani Mercier (Brussels, Belgium), Nathalie Karg (New York, NY), ZieherSmith (New York, NY), White Columns (New York, NY), Loyal Gallery (Stockholm), and other notable galleries. Her work was recently included in the exhibition A New Subjectivity (2017) at the Reece Museum (Johnson City, Tennesse) and Domestic Seen (2016) at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Overland Park, KS). You can read more about her in Hyperallergic, Vogue, ArtForum, and other publications. After attending prep school in Buffalo (NY), Markus earned her BFA at School of Visual Arts (New York, NY) and her MFA from the Tyler School of Art (Philadelphia, PA).
