At first glance, Elizabeth Neel’s work might appear to be an expressionistic explosion of brushstrokes. Slower looking reveals an array of marks and lines formed by gestures that are both active and mechanical. The black shape in the upper left was formed by folding the canvas, creating a reference to bilateral organisms found in nature, as well as Rorschach tests emblematic of Modern psychology. Pressure and movement are important to Neel, seen not only in her splashes and drips, but also in her use of printmaking rollers to create smeared, chattered marks. Ultimately, she mines the history of mark-making to formulate a language uniquely her own, and to create a work that is at once entirely familiar and oddly foreign. Neel’s work has been included in solo and group exhibitions worldwide.
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