ELIZABETH GLAESNER
Name: Elizabeth Glaessner
Age: 37
Home: Brooklyn, USA
Birthplace: Born in Palo Alto, USA
Discipline: Painting
Echo, 2021, courtesy of the artist and P·P·O·W New York
What is the story behind your work?
I was always drawing growing up. My mom painted and taught art, so I learned a lot from her as a kid. Drawing was the most natural way for me to try to understand my thoughts, explore ideas, and express things I didn’t have the verbal vocabulary for - I think it still functions this way. There is a real sense of freedom and release in that.
Which topics does your work focus on?
Everything stems from works on paper, which are done without a plan or a sketch. So the content of the work comes from things I learned in the process of making them as much as it comes from any predetermined ideas of what I think they’re about. It’s all very flexible and one question leads to the next. I draw from a collective pool of things that spark my interest and rely on a set of evolving tools that I learn through making the work.
How do you define your artistic search and practice in three words?
Try, fail, try again.
How does your work reflect our current times?
My work is a pretty true reflection of my thoughts and actions which are happening now and which are definitely shaped by our current reality. I don’t try to force a particular aesthetic. I am making it today, therefore it is reflective of this moment - whether that be in the action of making a specific mark, or in the moment that an idea or an image resonated with me enough to want to investigate it further.
What is your artistic and personal commitment?
To always approach art-making with the boldness and inquisitive nature of an amateur, embracing failure and trying new ways of working which uproot me from my comfort zone.
Wherein lies the beauty for you today?
In seeing things like I’m seeing them for the first time.
Black Hole Sun, 2021, courtesy of the artist and P·P·O·W New York