“Serial Romance Series” – The Full Set

Eliza Griffiths is a Canadian artist whose practice is centered on an exploration of psychological, sexual, and interpersonal themes through the creation of invented characters in painting. Born in London, England, Griffiths immigrated to Ottawa, Canada at the age of eight. She studied Studio Art at Concordia University and did graduate studies in Art History at Carleton University. Griffiths’ paintings have been widely exhibited throughout Canada and internationally, including exhibitions at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Centre (Buffalo); Mercer Union (Toronto); the Saidye Bronfman Center (Montreal); Platform Gallery, (London, UK); The Painting Center (NY,NY); and ARCO, (Madrid, Spain). Her work has been featured in publications such as NYArts Magazine; Canadian Art; Border Crossings; C-Magazine; ARCO Madrid, and has been extensively collected both privately and publicly. Griffiths lives in Montreal and teaches at Concordia University. – (Text extracted from the artist’s website)

 

“My artistic practice is based in figurative oil painting and is motivated by my interest in human experience and behaviour. The additive and subtractive process of painting allows me to invent characters to perform distilled tableaux on themes ranging from gender identity, power, sexuality, and relationships. Over the past number of years I have worked in thematic series, beginning each with a conceptual framework and then allowing the layered painting processes to determine the eventual form and content of the work. Examples of past bodies of work are the installation Peep: Beyond the Eye of the Beholder (1996) which addressed issues of power dynamics ; Stories of Girls which examined female adolescent experience and the development of socio-psycho-sexual identity; and the Karate Girl paintings(1996/7) which dealt with womens’ negotiation of the urban environment. Ongoing has been my interest in sexuality, intimacy, and the persistance of desire in projects such as Dystopic Romances and Serial Romance Paintings.” – Eliza Griffiths

“Fast Runners”

“Incitement: Kirk Douglas pose”

Installation of Exhibition entitled “Incitement, Intuition, and Inclination“

“Flower”

“Sailor”

“Affected by (Super) Nature”

“Put On”

“Fuckhead”

“Intuition: Oral Roberts pose“

“Fast Runners II”

“Installation view of Urban Narratives at Gallery McClure, Montreal“

“Installation view of Urban Narratives at Gallery McClure, Montreal“

“Gamblers”

“Drive”

“Urban Narrative“

“Perils of Hedonism“

“Drive”

“Super Bird”

I was lucky enough to be taught by Eliza during my Undergraduate studies at Concordia University: she was the only teacher who was able to show me my strengths and weaknesses in painting in a very constructive manner, enabling me to focus on my strenghts which slowly diminished my weaknesses, but this is still an ongoing process.