Elizabeth Englander renders figurative sculptures in idiosyncratic material choices that stem from rigorous art historical research. She dives deep into studies of icons throughout history and expressively reconstructs their forms using ephemera from everyday life. Englander’s remodelings of icons—like a Diana archer composed of her late mother’s often reused ribbons, or a wire-mesh body of crucified Christ with skin stitched painstakingly from old bathing suits, or Hindu/Buddhist yoginis built out of dismembered wooden Nutcrackers and old furniture—attempt dialogues between disparate histories, mediated through sculptural poses related to suffering, growth, sexuality, enlightenment, and renewal.
Elizabeth Englander (b.1988, Boston, MA) lives and works in New York, NY. She received her BFA from The Rhode Island School of Design in 2011 and her MFA from Hunter College in 2019. Recent solo exhibitions include Englander’s first institutional exhibition at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT (2024): House of Gaga, Guadalajara (2023), Liste Art Fair Basel, solo presentation with Theta (2023); Theta, New York (2022); Smart Objects, Los Angeles (2021); From the Desk of Lucy Bull, Los Angeles (2019). Selected Group exhibitions have been held at: By Art Matters, Hangzhou, CN (2024); Company Gallery, New York (2024); Bel Ami, Los Angeles (2024); White Columns, New York (2023); Lomex, New York, (2022); What Pipeline, Detroit (2022); Theta, New York (2021); Smart Objects, Los Angeles (2021); Night Gallery, Los Angeles (2021); Safe Gallery, Brooklyn (2019); and Muzeum Ikon, Warsaw, PL (2018).
News
Conversation between Lucy Bull and Elizabeth Englander, Edited by Ha Duong
Feature in BOMB Magazine, Winter 2024-2025 Print Issue
Exhibition Catalogue available here
‘Material Transformations’
Artist Profile by Annabel Keenan in Avenue Magazine
Gallery Exhibitions and Fairs
Press
Tricycle: The Buddhist Review Barker, Haley. Meeting the Buddha in the Scrapyard, August 2024
Avenue Magazine Keenan, Annabel. Material Transformations, June 2024
The New York Times, Lakin, Max. Elizabeth Englander at Theta, June 2022
L’Officiel, Schwartz, Alexa. 9 Artists to Watch, January 2022
TheGuide.Art, Herriman, Kat. Deathbound and Sexed at Theta, April 2021
Publications