EXHIBITION DATES: March 12th-April 23rd, 2011

Opening Reception with the Artist: Saturday, March 12th, 2-5 pm

Brick Walk Fine Art is very pleased to announce our next exhibition featuring selected works by Connecticut based artist, Elizabeth Gourlay. Elizabeth Gourlay paints allegories. Her paintings speak of science as they document experiments with Cartesian planes and bar graphs. They speak of music as shapes represent sound and colors represent volume. They also speak of history and culture through overlapping layers of seemingly worn or tattered paper, unraveling threads of ancient textiles, and scattered symbolic imagery juxtaposed with timeless pattern. Of her work the artist has written,

"I think of the work as a meditation on color and form. The drawings and paintings emerge from a gradual yet progressive meditation that leads to a complex network of shifting shapes and colors. The shapes and lines create my own vocabulary of abstract forms. They are resonances with inner emotional states, elements of feelings or sub-conscious thoughts combined with conscious thought about architecture and geometric structure. I often begin with a background layer of washes and then work with elements of line and shape in the foreground. The color may become muted and minimal, admixing into greys and earth tones or they may be vibrant and intense. There are parallels in musical composition, as looking at the work is an interaction and the eye moves around the piece element to element, as musical note to musical note, chord, discord, harmony and tone."

After a fellowship at the Yale/Norfolk Summer School of Music and Art, Elizabeth went on to receive a DA with First Class Honors from Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland and an MFA in Painting from Yale University School of Art. She has been awarded several grants and fellowships, including an Individual Artist Grant from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. Elizabeth shows her work nationally and internationally, most notably at The Drawing Center, The National Academy and School of Fine Arts, The Cummings Arts Center at Connecticut College, The Hecksher Museum and the Widener Gallery at Trinity College. She is currently on the faculty at the Rhode Island School of Design and Connecticut College.