Elizabeth Lide
Oddments of the Lean State will re-contextualize objects from 12 of my installations (1980-2020) and integrate them with new pieces created since 2020. I have made site-specific installations, drawings, and artist’s books for 45 years, keeping specimens from most projects. At Atlanta Contemporary (Nexus) in 1984, I placed pieces out of original contexts in an environmental installation discussed by Xenia Zed and Alan Sondheim in the Sept/Oct 1984 issue of Art Papers. That review resurfaced for me at the time I became fascinated with combining different projects/subjects/time periods.
My work has always had a conceptual base, with materials chosen for messaging. Made and found objects (held for years) feel saturated with memories and time. Issues addressed previously are still around: war, dictators, women’s healthcare, greed, and growth.
With the help of woodworker Malina Rodriguez, wooden structures will support combinations of objects, redefining their meanings with my stream-of-consciousness placements. Oddments: a remnant or part of something left over; of the Lean State is Thomas Jefferson speaking of “the lean state of your soil.” (His full remark was on my 1996 Art Papers Artist Page). Yes, I am looking back, pulling the past into the present, and trying to avoid projections for the future.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Elizabeth Lide creates meditative drawings, objects, and installations that explore the contradictions in accumulation and the making of multiples, the distillation of surroundings into shapes and grids as repositories for color and mood, and the placement of ordinary objects in new contexts.
She has been awarded residences at Moulin à Nef in Auvillar, France; MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA; MacDowell in Peterborough, NH; Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA); Hambidge in Rabun Gap, GA; Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig, Ireland; and with University of Georgia Lamar Dodd School of Art in Cortona, Italy. She was the recipient of a Working Artist Project Fellowship from the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA), selected by Saisha M. Grayson, Assistant Curator at the Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum.
Her solo exhibitions have included Whitespace in Atlanta, MOCA GA, Atlanta Contemporary, Sandler Hudson Gallery, The Arts Festival of Atlanta, La Mama in New York City, SECCA in NC, Atlanta Art Workers’ Coalition, Winthrop University in SC, The Upstairs in Tryon, Atlanta Women’s Art Collective, Baldwin-Wallace College in KY, and Window-on-Gaines in Tallahassee, Florida. Her work has been shown in 90+ group exhibitions including The Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC; Athens Institute of Contemporary Art in Athens, Georgia; Whitespace Gallery; MOCA GA; The High Museum of Art; The Swan Coach House; Carlos Museum at Emory University; A.I.R. Gallery in New York City; Atlanta College of Art; University of Maryland; Eyedrum; Carlsberg Glytotek Museum in Copenhagen; The Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design Gallery at Georgia State University; The Upstairs in Tryon, North Carolina; Brenau College; and The Chautauqua Exhibition of American Art in Chautauqua, New York.
Her artists’ books have been collected by the Museum of Modern Art, The University of Damascus, The University of North Carolina, Duke University, Emory University, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Iowa, The ACA Library at SCAD, Ruth and Marvin Sackner Collection, North Carolina Writers’ Network, and Minnesota Center for Book Arts. Her drawings are in collections at The High Museum of Art, MOCA GA, the Microsoft Corporation, and in numerous private collections.