Liz Markus b. 1967

Liz Markus (b. Buffalo, NY 1967) paints work informed by her experience growing up as a Gen-Xer and influenced by the rawness of punk and grunge music. Her process is intuitive but often inspired by continuing points of interest including hippies, dinosaurs, and socialites. She believes the non-verbal mind makes the best paintings and, as a result, allows the subconscious to guide her work as much as possible. 

Markus uses bold and colorful washes of acrylic paint usually on unprimed canvas. Her technique and thoughts about art evolved from her extensive time spent at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery while growing up in Buffalo NY.  There she was able to immerse herself in the work of Abstract Expressionists, Stain Painters, and Pop Artists so prominent in the museum’s collection. 

The artist earned her MFA from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia in 1997, and her BFA at School of Visual Arts in New York in 1989. She has mounted solo exhibitions internationally at The Pit (Los Angeles), Maruani Mercier (Brussels), Unit (London), Nathalie Karg (New York), White Columns (New York), and Loyal Gallery (Stockholm) among many others. Markus was also awarded an artist residency at the Elaine DeKooning House, East Hampton, NY. 

Museum exhibitions include “A New Subjectivity” curated by Jason Stopa with Katherine Bernhardt, Kathy Bradford, Rose Wiley, and Jackie Gendel at Pratt Manhattan Gallery in New York, Fine Arts Center Gallery at University of Arkansas, The Reece Museum at East Tennessee State University, and “Domestic Seen”, curated by Bruce Hartman at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City.

Liz Markus lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.