Artist Statement

My mixed media installations and drawings recontextualize simplified shapes, signs and symbols from disparate historical and contemporary imagery to create abstract fictions. Existing forms from a multitude of sources are co-opted, altered, and spliced to adopt hybrid identities. Through the process of appropriation and subsequent recombination, shapes lose their real-world connotations and take on fictitious roles. Forged relationships between benign and malignant forms confuse the original implications of each while revealing the precariousness of perception and how easily it can be tampered with. Recent projects pit Baroque and Gothic pattern and ornament against forms derived from armor and weaponry. Seemingly oppositional pairings create duplicitous environments where conflicting messages are conveyed. The use of felt, foam, and other tactile materials further complicates questions of source, masking the identity of forms while allowing them to inhabit both sculptural and two-dimensional space.

Education

2005 MFA—Drawing & Painting, Department of Art, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

1999 BFA—Painting, With Honors, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

Upcoming Exhibitions

03/06 Recombinant Militance, Pop-Up Art Loop, Chicago, IL

07/14 2011/12 McKnight Visual Artists Exhibition, MCAD Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

{TBD} {TBD}, Gatewood Gallery, UNC Greensboro--Falk Visiting Artist Program

Solo Exhibitions

2011 Nefarious Hybrid, Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND

2011 Capricious Eradication Prototype, Louisiana Tech, Ruston, LA

2011 Picturesque Evacuation Ploy, Redux Contemporary Art Center, Charleston, SC

2011 Shaping Space, Coe College, Cedar Rapids, IA

2011 Illusive Insurgency, 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA

2011 Ornamental Invasion, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN

2011 Repetitive Deception Scheme, Haas Gallery of Art, Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, PA

2010 Exponential Growth, Sister Rosaire Gallery, St. Mary’s College, South Bend, IN

2009 Cataclysmic Rescue Mission, Harcourt House Arts Centre, Edmonton, Alberta, CAN

2008 Self-Sustaining Debacle, Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, Virginia Beach, VA

2008 Techno Deluge, Mercer Union, Toronto, Ontario, CAN

2008 Resplendent Reconnaissance, Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, IA

2006 Ostentatious Onslaught, Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, Fort Collins, CO

2006 Impudent Instant Message, Gould Library, Carleton College, Northfield, MN

2005 Home-Grown Invasion, Bloomington Art Center, Bloomington, MN

2005 Systemic Attack, Franklin Art Works, Project Space, Minneapolis, MN

2005 Systemic Detour, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Katherine Nash Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

2004 Serendipitous Hybrid, Rochester Art Center, Rochester, MN

2004 The Failure of an Eloquent Defense, Christensen Center Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

2012 Recalcitrant Mimesis, David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, CO

Group Exhibitions

2010 Systematizing, Gallery of Contemporary Art, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO

2010 Systematics, Soo Visual Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN

2010 Vertical Currency: Five Years of Emerging Artists, RAC, Rochester, MN

2010 Constant Sorting, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI

2010 Off the Wall, Form + Content, Minneapolis, MN

2009 ArtsMN: The Precious Object, Cargill Gallery, Minneapolis Public Library, Minneapolis, MN

2009 Miller/Roby/Ullanderson, Sellout Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

2008 Jerome Fellows 2007—08, MCAD Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

2008 Latitude, NYCAMS Gallery, New York, NY

2007 Urban Fabric, Traffic Zone Center for Visual Art, Minneapolis, MN

2007 Artist Initiative Grant Exhibition, Minnesota State Arts Board, St. Paul, MN

2007 Latitude, Fieldgate Gallery, London, UK

2007 Mary Day, Susan Knight, and Liz Miller, BC Projects, Omaha, NE

2007 Environments of Invention, Minnesota Museum of American Art, Minneapolis, MN

2006 8x8x8: LON/MSP/NYC, The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN

2006 Perform/Install, South Bend Regional Museum of Art, South Bend, IN

2004 Trickle Down, Firehouse Gallery, Burlington, VT

2004 Proliferate: Drawing in Space, Accumulating in Time, Foster Gallery, Eau Claire, WI

2004 Box Fresh, The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN

2004 Untitled III, Soo Visual Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN

1999 BFA Thesis Exhibition,

2012 Abstract Fiction, University of Wisconsin-Milwuakee Union Art Gallery

Awards and Honors

2011

Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant

2011-2012

McKnight Artist Fellowship for Visual Artists

2009

Artist Initiative Grant, Minnesota State Arts Board

2007-2008

MCAD/Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists

2007

Artist Initiative Grant, Minnesota State Arts Board

Residencies

2007 Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE

Selected Bibliography

2008

Nature: Inspiration for Art & Design. Barcelona: Monsa. 2008.

Abbe, Mary. “Midterm Report.” Minneapolis Star Tribune. Oct. 10, 2008.

Klefstad, Ann. “Assessing the 2007-2008 MCAD/Jerome Fellows.” mnartists.. Oct. 13, 2008.

2007

Coomer, Martin. “Latitude.” Time Out London. Jan 31-Feb.6, 2007, p 45.

Tactile: High Touch Visuals.M Ed. R Klanten, S. Ehmann, M. Huebner. Berlin: Die Gestalten Verlag.

Klefstad, Ann. “Our Invented World(s). Mn Arts Weekly 1.2.

2006

DeLand, Lauren. “8 x 8 x 8 at the Soap Factory…”, Review. September 2006, pp. 64-67.

New American Paintings: Juried-Exhibition-in-Print, No. 65., pp. 94-97,“Juror’s Comments.”

Rivers, Karen. “Mixing Media...”, South Bend Tribune. July 23, 2006.

Argintineau, Judy. “Exponential Expressions”, Minneapolis Star Tribune May 7, 2006, p. F2.

Fallon, Michael. “Liz Miller at Franklin Art Works.” Art in America. Feb. 2006. pp.138-139.