Liz Larner
Liz Larner was born in Sacramento, California in 1960. She experiments with abstract sculptural forms in a dizzying array of materials, including polychromatic ceramics that evoke the tectonic geologic shifts of the western landscape. An inventor of new forms, Larner’s sculptures are not easy to categorize. They defy easy description by design, such as the geometric sculpture of a cube turning into a sphere that is both yet neither, or a complex chain of linked metal rings that never tangles and can also be worn as jewelry.
Optically they allure and confuse, such as her sculptures of wiry boxes that appear to solidify into new shapes based on the alignment of colors. Working with both analog and digital tools, Larner’s materials change from work to work and can include fiberglass, crystals, paper, clay, aluminum, steel, rubber, epoxy, mirror, cloth, and even bacteria. As daring as her investigation into new forms can be, Larner’s sculptures are approachable in their human scale and idiosyncratic vision that favors personal narrative over minimal austerity.
Liz Larner attended California Institute of Arts (BFA, 1985). Larner’s awards include a Nancy Graves Foundation grant (2014), Pacific Design Center award (2005), Lucelia Artist Award (2002), Anonymous Was a Woman Award (2000), and a Guggenheim Fellowship (1999). Larner has had major exhibitions at the Aspen Museum of Art (2016); Art Institute of Chicago (2015); MoCA, Los Angeles (2015, 2013, 2012, 2001); Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami (2014); Kunsthaus Graz (2014); Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus (2014); Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2013-14); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (2013); Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (2013); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2012); and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2012), among others. Liz Larner lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA.
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Liz Larner
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“The idea of an artist being someone that can change their mind—that that’s kind of what you’re required to do, is to follow your ideas and not just do the same thing over and over again.”
Liz Larner