Lizzie Zelter
Bio: Lizzie Zelter (b. 1996) is a visual artist born and raised in New York City. She is currently an MFA Candidate at Columbia University. Her work investigates the process of place-making and explores themes of disorientation and strangeness in the everyday.
lizziezelter.com
Instagram: @the_lizard_of_oz
Thesis Exhibition
Artist Statement: My work aims to generate affective experiences of both familiarity and disorientation, of eerie recognition and the potential to see anew. I utilize fracturing, mirroring and scale shifts to intervene and expose the strangeness of a world we often identify without questioning. I seek to challenge the processes of naming and classifying and instead unveil echoes and patterns in a state of indeterminacy. Existing between painting and sculpture, imagery and objecthood, my work incorporates division and doubling to express both obstruction and continuity.
Past family and professional experiences in immigration law led me to consider place as both a verb and a noun. I portray the overlooked process of a place being created and made identifiable, isolating its essence so that it may become demystified. This includes an attention to the objects inherent to producing identity. I am drawn to materials that are imbued with temporality and symbolism within the context of a personal or national archive. My work vigilantly observes the human made in a commitment to questioning and exposing the micro and macro infrastructure that produce our society.
L to R: Jaywalker (68" x 56", Oil on canvas, 2022); Getting to the bottom of it (68" x 56", Oil on canvas, 2022); They fly and walk and float and run (72" x 36", 2021, Oil on canvas, steel wire, and plaster, 2022); Through and through (96" x 24" x 24", Mirorred aluminum, wood, ornaments, 2022); Goofing off (18" x 10" x 10", Oil on porcelain, nail polish on plaster, found objects, 2022)
First Year Exhibition
L to R: Theory of Forms (48” x 36”, Oil on canvas, 2021), (12 “x 24” x 12”, Wood shelf, painted porcelain, glass, tea leaves, mirror, rhinestone)
