Liz Markus is an American painter. Markus was born in Buffalo, New York. Liz Markus is known for her idiosyncratic paintings that combine colorful expressionism with pop imagery. She has painted a spectrum of personalities from Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten to first lady Nancy Reagan. Her signature technique of saturated washes of acrylic paint on unprimed canvas show her use of vibrant colors that diffuse and bleed into each other on the canvas. She presents trippy wet-on-wet compositions that evoke sixties psychedelia as well as the "high art" of midcentury Color Field painting and majestic landscape paintings; touched by an irreverent Pop sensibility. Markus has had solo exhibitions at ZieherSmith in New York and Galleri Loyal in Stockholm.
b. 1967 Buffalo, NY
Lives and Works in New York, NY
EDUCATION
1997 MFA, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA
1989 BFA, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
RESIDENCIES
Elaine DeKooning House, East Hampton, NY
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018 Liz Markus, County Gallery, Palm Beach, FL
2017 Liz Markus, Maruani Mercier Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
2015 Girlfriends of the Rolling Stones, pop up at 199 Mott (with In Situ and Wallplay), New York, NY
2014 Town & Country, Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York, NY
2012 Eleven, Ille Arts, Amagansett, New York, NY
The Look of Love, ZieherSmith, New York, NY
2010 Are You Punk Or New Wave?, ZieherSmith, New York, NY
2009 Hot Nights At The Regal Beagle, ZieherSmith, New York, NY
2007 What We Are We’re Going To Wail With On This Whole Trip, Galleri Loyal, Stockholm
The More I Revolt, The More I Make Love, ZieherSmith, New York, NY
2000 White Room: Liz Markus, White Columns, New York, NY
MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS
2017 A New Subjectivity curated by Jason Stopa with Katherine Berhardt, Kathy Bradford, Rose Wiley,
and Jackie Gendel. Pratt Manhattan, travelling to the University of Arkansas, and The Reece Museum, TN
2016 Domestic Seen, curated by Bruce Hartman, with Ramiro Gomez, Matt Bollinger, Ezra Johnson, Julie Blackmon,
Thomas Kiefer, and Sean Lyman. Nerman Museum, Kansas City, KS
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017 Man Alive, Jablonka Maruani Mercier Gallery, Brussels, Belgium, curated by Wendy White
2015 8 Painters, Danese Corey, New York, NY
2014 Home Turf, 3 person show with Ashley Garrett and Judith Linhares
Cat Art Show, 101/exhibit, Los Angeles, curated by Susan Michaels
2013 All Fucking Summer, Gavlak Gallery, Palm Beach, FL
Endless Summer, Brian Morris Gallery, New York, NY
#summerfridays, Salomon Contemporary, New York, NY
Woods, Lovely Dark, and Deep, DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY, curated by John Zinsser
Chick Lit: Revised Summer Reading, Tracy Williams, Ltd., New York, NY, curated by Molly Rand and Pilar Vahey
Endless Summer, Brian Morris Gallery, New York, NY
Deep Cuts, Anna Kustera, New York, NY, curated by Wendy White and David Humphrey
2012 Bad for You, Shizaru Gallery, London, curated by Beth Rudin DeWoody
RAW: Andrew Guenther, José Lerma, Liz Markus, Wendy White, Ille Arts, Amagansett, curated by Liz Markus
Open for the Stones, curated by Kevin Teare, Harper’s Books, East Hampton Peripheral Nausea, organized by
Dan Kopp, Brooklyn Fire Proof, New York, NY
2011 BNA, ZieherSmith Pop-Up Gallery, Nashville, TN
Grasping For Relics, organized by Patrick Brennan, ZieherSmith, New York, NY
2010 DE/Nature, curated by Wendy White, Jolie Laide Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Run And Tell That!, SUArt Galleries, Syracuse, NY, NY
Big Picture, curated by Ryan Schneider, Priska Juschka Fine Art, New York, NY
Fuckheads: Portraiture for the Silicon Enlightenment, Kinkead Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
2009 Too Big To Fail, NADA/ART IN/VISIBLE SPACES, Brooklyn, NY
Real Love, The Apartment Show, Brooklyn, NY
Grand Reopening, ZieherSmith, New York, NY
**ckheads: Portraiture for the Silicon Enlightenment, curated by Angela Dufresne, SCA Contemporary, Albuquerque, NM
Giving Face, Nicholas Robinson Gallery, New York, NY
2008 Just It (Just Be), Galleri Opdahl, Stavanger, Norway
Color Climax, curated by Joe Fyfe, James Graham & Sons, New York Glasshouses, curated by Eddie Martinez, Werkstätte, NY
I’m On Top Of Things, Galleri Loyal, Stockholm
The Big Show, The Silas Marder Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY
Electric Lady Land, Mahan Gallery, Columbus, OH
2007 The Fluid Field: Abstraction and Reference, curated by Dona Nelson, Temple Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Young People Are Now Spending More Time Playing Video Games Than Watching Television, fifty50 gallery, Chicago, IL
Someday Never Comes, ZieherSmith, New York, NY
2005 New York’s Finest, Canada, New York, NY
2000 Re: Duchamp, Kulter Banhoff Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Meat Market Art Fair, New York, NY
Architorture, White Columns, New York, NY
1999 Trans, Hamburg Kunsthaus, Hamburg, Germany
1998 Group Exhibition, Clifford Smith Gallery, Boston, MA
SPECIAL PROJECTS
2015 MOVE! Curated by Cecilia Dean and David Coleman
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bradley Rubenstein, “Imperial Bedrooms: Liz Markus’ High Satire”, ArtSlant, June 2017
Zach Fischman, Liz Markus, Art As Golf, Little Star Art Journal, January 13, 2017
Maria Calandra, Pencil In The Studio, November 2016
Art Crush: Liz Markus, Dear Design, June 14, 2016
Sarah Cascone, Ryan McNamara Artwork Offers Free Makeover and Diane Von Furstenberg Dress, artnet news, October 2015
Véronique Hyland, “Cecilia Dean on Her Latest Immersive Fashion Project”, NY Magazine’s The Cut, October 2015
James Andrew, "Girlfriends of the Rolling Stones", whatisjameswearing.com, June 2015
Jenny Held, "Glorified Groupies: Paintings Of The Rolling Stone's Sexy Ladies", artreport.com, July 2015
Patrick Neal, "8 Figurative Painters in an Atemporal World", Hyperallergic, March 2015
Miss Moss, "Liz Markus", Design Crush, December 11, 2014
Maria Brito, "Liz Markus's Glam Irreverence", Out There, August 2014 James Andrew, "Liz Markus—Town And Country", www.whatisjameswearing.com, July 2014
Mark Guiducci, "4 Art Shows to See That Are Not Jeff Koons", Vogue.com, June 2014
Bradley Rubenstein, "Vanity Fair: Liz Markus + Bradley Rubenstein", Culture Catch, June 2014
Julie Chae, “Liz Markus: 11”, Huffington Post, July 2012
Amagansett, “Painter with a Punk (or is it New Wave?) Attitude – Liz Markus”,Hamptonarthub.com, July 4, 2012
Michael Sanchez, “Pandora’s Black Box,” ArtForum, March 2012
Michelle Jones, “Arts,” The Tennessean, July 31, 2011, image Paul Polycarpou, (ed.), “Spotlight on ZieherSmith,” Nashville Arts Magazine, July 2011
Dakin Hart, “The Theme of This Show is I Love It”
David Coggins, Interview, catalog for “Are You Punk or New Wave?”
Daniel Gerwin, “De-nature at Jolie Laide,” ArtSlant New York, December 10, 2010
Bradley Rubenstein, “Lipstick Traces,” Culture Catch, December 5, 2010
Scott Indrisek, “Big Picture,” Modern Painters, October 2010
Joey Schlank, “Curator’s Corner,” Hamptons, 32; 3, July 2-8th, 2010
Mimi Luse, “Too Big To Fail,” Art Papers, January/February 2010
Deven Golden, “Liz Markus: Hot Nights At The Regal Beagle at ZieherSmith Gallery,”Artcritical, May 14, 2009
Kimberly Brooks, “American Still Screams: The Art of Liz Markus,” The Huffington Post, March 16, 2009
Qi Peng, “Assaination: Liz Markus,” The Salt Lake City Fine Arts Examiner, March 12, 2009
New American Paintings 74, Boston: Open Studios Press, February/March 2008 Edith Newhall, “Get Thee to Elkins Park,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 12, 2007 “Art: Liz Markus,” The L Magazine, June 20 – July 3, 2007