"I move with and behind my brush. Line leads and often my hands and body know before I do what must happen next in the painting. With varying speed, I leave a trace of my presence on the painting, and the residue is not unlike the fluid current that occurs as an object moves through water or air.

My paintings begin with a layering of mottled color that creates a light or staging that I can respond to. I cast my line into the color space, and allow it to cluster and gather into suggestive formations. I think of the marks as a kind of rhythmic swirling of movement and feeling that ebbs inward then swerves out again, creating structure and hinting at recognizable forms. This is a spontaneous activity in which the material properties of paint; its slipperiness, opacity and viscosity are put into an uneasy tension with legibility.

Specific places and moments are conjured as I work, and landscapes that bridge inner and outer worlds evolve. I seek the associative thoughts and images brought on by the painting act. I think of these paintings as both mineral and pigment rich, yet connected to the sopping liquidity of paint.” - Elizabeth Gilfilen

About the artist: Elizabeth Gilfilen received her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and has since been awarded residencies at The Golden Foundation, Yaddo, The Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Studio Immersion Project, The Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, and Gallery Aferro. She has been honored with nominations from The Joan Mitchell Foundation and The Dedalus Foundation. Solo exhibitions include YI GALLERY, Brooklyn, NY, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA, Silvermine Galleries, CT and The Hunterdon Museum of Art, Clinton, NJ. Reviews of her work have been featured in Art Spiel, Two Coats of Paint, The New Criterion, The Boston Globe, The Newark Star-Ledger, and The New York Times. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.