2012 Catalogue Archive

Liza Markus’ recent work focuses on the landscape as historical painting genre, emotional metaphor, pop culture icon and cliché. In The Tears and The Sadness (a line from the Burt Bacharach and Hal David song “Walk On By,” made famous by Dionne Warwick), a romantic tropical island scene is illuminated by a bright orange sunset. Markus paints with acrylic on unprimed canvas laid out on the floor (a technique that calls to mind Helen Frankenthaler and other Color Field painters). The stained, hazy result conjures both the romantic effects of memory on our experiences of events and places, as well atmospheric weather conditions like mist, luminosity, or brightness. Markus’ art has been seen in galleries in the U.S. and Europe, and she has a work in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.