Liz Dawson is fascinated by the potential of painting to combine different levels of information.
She makes paintings of small-scale paper models built in her studio. This allows her to create specific subject matter in terms of shape, colour, texture, and lighting. At the same time, it provides only limited information on the scale, context, and possible usage of the objects. The models themselves function purely as source material.
Currently, she takes elements from maps or diagrams as her starting point. She enjoys the way their visual language can oscillate between abstract symbol and realistic depiction. This involves a back and forth between the two and three dimensional, detaching the imagery from the countable, the measurable, and the functional.
Her practice hints at the relationship between the speed of painting and the speed of looking. Each painting includes brushstrokes of different scales and varying intensities of detail, drawing the viewer’s attention towards the process of making the work.
Vita / CV
After spending seven years in Hamburg, Liz Dawson now lives and works in Berlin.
Education
2002 – 2004 Royal College of Art – MA Painting
1995 – 1998 Winchester School of Art – BA (Hons) Painting
Selected exhibitions
2024
Layer Cake, Axel Obiger, Berlin (mit Andrea J. Grote, Yuki Jungesblut, Vivian Eckstein und Hans-Peter Stark)
yardt SALE vol. 1, SAP Space, Berlin
2023
X, ZF Projektraum, Berlin
Freiwillige vor!, nachtspeicher23, Hamburg
2022
The Method of the Moment, Small Talks Art Space Lab, Berlin
Emotions & Relations, ZF Projektraum, Berlin
2018
II III X #3, nachtspeicher23, Hamburg
2017
Silent Auction, The Drawing Hub, Berlin
2016
fragment, Werkstadt, Berlin
2015
Ausdauer, nachtspeicher23, Hamburg
Underlying Structure, Kunstraum E, Leipzig
2014
The Producers Art Fair, Hamburg-Harburg
2013
Likeness, Galerie in Stadtzentrum, Schenefeld
2011
Ridley Road Open Studios, London
2010
Ridley Road Open Studios, London
2009
National Art Open, The Minerva, Chichester Barbican Arts Group Open
2007
Zoo Art Fair, One in the Other, London
Incorporate, Arts and Business, London
Pulse Art Fair, One in the Other, New York
2006
Toronto Art Fair, Frost and Reed, Toronto
The Miniature Worlds Show, Jerwood Space, London
Merry Echo Cooling Spot, One in the Other, London
2005
Peculiar Encounters, ECArtspace, London
Second Nature, Blyth Gallery, London
New Romantic, The Hospital, London
2004
Platform 100, ING Bank, London
Common Ground, Chambers Gallery, London
2001
Apthorp 2001, Touring Exhibition, London
2000
Trust Us, The Florence Trust, London
1999
Rentrée, Stanley Picker Gallery, London
1998
Liz Dawson – Recent Paintings, Tower Arts Centre, Winchester