Biography
Utilizing a variety of media, Elizabeth Knowles’ site-specific installations reveal both static and dynamic patterns in nature. Elizabeth has a BA from Pomona College, Claremont, CA and an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL.
Recent projects include site-specific installations for The Mount, Lenox, MA, Unesco’s Artistes + Science, Monaco, Rockrose Lobby for Chashama, NY, NY, Flat Iron Prow Art Space, NY, NY, Chashama Lobby, NY, NY, the New Canaan Sculpture Trail, CT, NYU Langone, NY, NY and Montefiore Hospital, Bronx, NY. Additionally, Knowles has created projects for Bank of America Plaza, Charlotte, NC, the Housatonic Museum, Bridgeport, CT, Artspace, New Haven, CT, the Painting Center, NY, NY, Five Points Art Center, CT, Studio 80 +Sculpture Grounds, Old Lyme, CT, the Kingston Police Building, Kingston, NY, Chesterwood National Trust for Historic Preservation, Stockbridge, MA and Governor’s Island, NY, NY. She has collaborated with Saks Fifth Avenue on window installations and VOGUE magazine for the “Last Look” page.
Knowles has received numerous grants and residencies including MASS MoCA’s Assets for Artists program, Weir Farm Art Center, Puffin Foundation, Miami Beach Cultural Council, Millay Colony, Yaddo, Banff Centre, E. D. Foundation, Artist’s Space, and Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation.
Natural patterns inspire my work. Some are biological patterns on the cellular level of organisms. Others are geological patterns of the earth’s natural landscapes. Through painting, sculpture, and site-specific installation, I explore how dynamic patterns connect landscapes and life forms, physiology and physics, death and detritus, growth and form.
Starting with the most simple and building to the more complex, my creative process becomes a recreation of the interaction of different levels of life. One basic component connects with another and another and another until a whole is created. This action is similar to a cell grouping together with other cells to form a more intricate organism. Echoing fractal patterns, the work displays the unfolding of life as patterns expand back into each and into themselves. Additionally, the structures reveal a frozen moment in time depicting the transition between order and chaos, or life and death.
Fractal structures define life’s patterns both figuratively and metaphorically. The meandering journey of sperm to egg, a chain of DNA, the lines on the palm of a hand, the more symbolic branches of a family tree or the recursive structures of language and thought interpret our lives as a series of non-linear transformations of organic structures unfolding in space. Ranging from atomistic to larger organizational systems, the study of patterns reveals the complex interface between the various levels of life and the mysterious connection between them.
Elizabeth Knowles, 2024