For The Pit’s next online viewing presentation we’re happy to take you on a tour of Liz Markus’ studio, where she has been working on a series of paintings inspired by the ubiquitous T-Rex Halloween costume. Markus generates various series of paintings focusing on a central shared motif such as her Kermit the frogs, cavemen, portraits of socialites, and more. Over the past few months the artist has had to leave her studio complex opting to set up a temporary workspace in her apartment. While working from home during the quarantine, Markus’ iconic drippy T-Rex began to occupy more and more canvases of different scale.

From Liz:

“I work in series.  Often they overlap.  I used to think I would get to a singular type of painting, along the lines of the Abstract Expressionists, Stain Painters, and Pop Artists but now I don’t think that will happen.  I’m always trying to find that perfect expression of myself as an artist. That’s what I thought the singular style idea was.  Now I see my different bodies of work as portraying facets of myself.    

To make my work I turn inside.  I’m trying to pull something out of me and put it on canvas.  I don’t expect people to be interested in my personal growth or expression but I’ve found that by expressing myself the best I can, I’m able to access something that people can relate to on a gut level but maybe can’t express and when they connect with my work, they can relate.

Painting has kept me sane during the pandemic, as it usually does.  I don’t actually have time to watch Netflix during the day, bake bread, or grow vegetables.  I’m fully engaged in my work, even though my studio is temporarily in our apartment.  It’s a bit strange to go from painting in a big studio with no one around to working in a small space while my husband cooks dinner behind me.  But I think it may be a really good thing.  It’s looser, it’s really messy, it’s unorganized, the studio spills out into the rest of our home and vice versa.  Seems like a  good atmosphere  for creativity.”

The Pit will include larger scale canvases featuring Markus’ dinosaurs in our next group exhibition opening July 2020, will include works in our upcoming Miami fair presentation, and will also have a solo exhibition with the artist in 2021.

“The T-Rex paintings started from my obsession with the ubiquitous T-Rex Halloween costume.  There are a thousand funny videos of the head falling back as people in the suit run…  I love the proportions, the colors, and the different poses it’s in.  I’m interested in ferocity within the cuteness of this T-Rex. But more than that, it’s a good thing to hang a painting on.  And it can contain emotion and color.” 

-LIZ MARKUS