b. Vermont, United States 1975

At first, the gestural brushstrokes and conspicuously blank spaces of Elizabeth Neel’s paintings appear to be the result of layered or collaged abstraction. But upon closer look, the artist’s unique form of representation begins to reveal itself. Her dripped and built-up surfaces tackle dark subjects like plane crashes and dog fights, decomposition and decay - often based on source material from the world around us, including images culled from the internet and television. Neel finds inspiration in a wide range of sources, including the work of her grandmother, bohemian portrait painter Alice Neel. Her sumptuous, sometimes violent use of paint has earned comparisons to Willem de Kooning.

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