Liz Ainslie
Artist Statement:
My work incorporates my love of gothic painting, Hellenistic frescoes, 1980s design, and minimalist architecture with the observations I collect when painting outdoors. When I take these influences into the studio, abstractions take on the qualities of things–the wings of a gothic angel morph into the hair of a My Little Pony toy. Through memory and fantasy, these phantoms shape my lexicon of visual forms. I like to subvert the contextual clues we use to read paintings, providing new avenues of perception. Cues like horizons, gradients, and shadows imply a semi-plausible space, but the materiality of the paint keeps me coming back to the surface of the painting.
My titles are extractions from ambiguous snippets of speech. I listen to the radio, isolating phrases and separating the words from their original context. The titling process mimics my painting practice as abstractions form from abbreviations, clipped motion, and interrupted horizons.
Artist Biography:
Liz Ainslie is an abstract painter living in Brooklyn, NY. She received an MFA from Tyler School of Art and a BFA from Alfred University. Ainslie’s solo show will open at Deanna Evans Projects in October, 2025. Her previous solo exhibitions include Transmitter Gallery, Airplane, Creon Gallery, The Cohen Gallery at Alfred University, and PLATFORM online. Her work has been included in shows at White Columns, Good Naked, Rhett Baruch, Tappeto Volante, SARDINE, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Orgy Park, Ground Floor Gallery, Outlet Fine Art, Centotto, Parallel Art Space, and A.I.R. Gallery, Vox Populi, BCB Fine Art, and Gallerie Kritiku, Prague, Czech Republic. Her work has been reviewed or featured in Art Maze Mag, Maake Magazine, Giornale Dell’ Arte, and The GC Advocate. Interviews with the artist can be found online at Maake Magazine, Gorky’s Granddaughter, and Pencil in the Studio. Ainslie is a Co-director of Underdonk Gallery.
AAA:
Member Since: 2018
Committee: Publications
