| Artist | Elizabeth Winnel-Wittfooth | Resides | United States |
| Website | elizabeth-winnel.com | Mediums | Oil Acrylic |
| Representing Gallery | Laney Contemporary Savannah, GA, USA SCARD Art Sales Savannah, GA, USA | [email protected] | |
| Follow the Artist | Themes | Women’s Identity Gender |
About the artist
Elizabeth Winnel-Wittfooth has garnered attention for her vibrant paintings of mouths and lips. Her bold, colorful creations are as expressive as they are unique, and her work has been featured in more than a hundred solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally. As an accomplished artist and arts professional, she has collaborated on many significant projects with globally recognized enterprises, including VH1 and Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta. A native Canadian, Elizabeth is a graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design (M.F.A., painting, 2013; B.F.A., illustration, 2008), and also studied Fine Arts at Fanshawe College in Ontario, Canada. She is also a curator at Artrepreneur, and has held positions as Professor of Painting at Savannah College of Art and Design.
Artwork Themes & Subject Matter
Elizabeth Winnel-Wittfooth has been thinking about the social scripts, masks, illusions and ideologies that structure how we interact with and respond to one another based on identity. Cultural facades disguise the supposed unsightliness of our humanity, in mind and body. Our imperfect looks, faults and awkward behaviours are photoshopped, optimised, edited, and readied for social media and cultural absorption. She finds herself questioning the relationship between these social pressures and expectations and our individual inner monologues and psychological well-being. How do these pressures affect paradigms of individual reality as well as our understanding and compassion for ourselves and others?
We are all influenced by social systems like popular and traditional cultures, religion, government, and these systems influence our behaviour towards others similar and dissimilar from ourselves. There is a reflex and quickness to judge and condemn others that express differences outside of the manicured, homogenous, binary, synthetic and systematised order. It’s Elizabeth’s intention to create a moment to pause – to consider the symbols, representations and codes associated with the body that fall just outside of accepted cultural norms; hairy lips, fertile flowers and fleshy pinks; and ask ourselves if this image is ok. Can we sit with and find acceptance for symbols that are very much like ones we have already seen, but are ever-so slightly different? It’s her hope that we can. If we can’t, can we be brave enough to ask ourselves why? We are all different: a little crazy, weird, ugly, strange, awkward, off-putting and peculiar, but that’s where we all find our shared humanity.
Press
Elizabeth Winnel-Wittfooth’s paintings have been published in notable magazines and online sources including Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, FOX 28 Media, WSAV MSNBC, The Connect, Art Architecture Icon, West Elm Catalogue, South Magazine, Paprika Southern, PMC Magazine, BLOUIN ArtInfo, Savannah Magazine, Murphy Design, Paper Fox
CV
Education
2013 MFA Fine Art (Summa Cum Laude), Savannah College of Art and Designs, Savannah, GA. United States
2009 BFA Communication Arts (Summa Cum Laude), Savannah College of Art and Designs, Savannah, GA, United States
2006 Fine Arts, Fashawe College, London, ON, Canada
Solo Exhibitions
2019 Formation Boutique, Bouquet of Orchids, Vail, CO. United States
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022 Artrepreneur, Equity Gallery, New York, NY. United States
2021 Nom Nom, Channel to Channel Gallery, Nashville, TN. United States
2019 Pop-Up, Laney Contemporary, Savannah, GA. United States
2018
Pop-Up, Laney Contemporary, Savannah, GA. United States
Then She Did, Plaxall Gallery, Long Island City, NY. United States
In Bloom, The Quin, New York, Ny. United States
2017
Invitational, The Rymer Gallery, Nashville, TN. United States
Tiny House Big Heart, Maritime Museum, Savannah, GA. United States
