Artist #37: Elizabeth Huey

 Elizabeth Huey was born in Virginia. She received a BA in Psychology from George Washington University and went on to study art and painting at Marchutz School of Art in France and New York Studio School of Drawing. Huey received a MFA from Yale University in 2002 and has since been exhibited both in solo and group shows in various museums across the United States. She has also won various awards and residencies and has had paintings featured in publications such as The New York Times, Washington Post, and LA Times. Here is her website.

The Superintendant, 2006.
Acryllic and Oil on Wood Panel.
Photo by me from VMFA.

I saw one of her works, entitled The Superintendant, at the VMFA. Her works are usually large panoramas of landscape that has strange juxtapositions of space. They also generally are about history and mental health. This particular work is based on the life of Thomas Kirkbride who was a mental-health reformer and architect. It shows an alienation theme along with simultaneous narrative (Thomas Kirkbridge appears 5 times in the work including him as a patient in the tranquilizing chair, undergoing sensory deprivation) and composite perspective.Violence is also a common theme in Huey's work where the line between good and evil becomes blurred.