Archive of work by graduates from the renowned MFA Programme at GSA

Elizabeth McDonald

Elizabeth McDonald was born and raised in Texas. She earned a BFA at the University of North Texas. She was a finalist for the 2010 Hunting Art Prize in Texas, and won second place in painting at the 2010 Celeste Art Prize in New York. She also won the 2010 BP Portrait’s Young Artist Award in London, and was shortlisted for the 2010 John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize in Liverpool.

Statement

I am not depicting truth in my paintings, nor am I simply inventing. Instead, I explore an interweaving of opposing pairs: reality with fiction; the concrete with the intuitive; and aversion with affection. My paintings have an anecdotal quality but not a singular narrative. This allows me to explore both grandiose themes and everyday life without enumerating which is which. Instead of presenting a complete and coherent story I simply attempt to reconcile the viewer to the painting’s inexplicability.