Dark Houses: Elizabeth Livingston

April 3, 2015 – June 6, 2015

New York-based artist Elizabeth Livingston often paints lone women in suburban and rural environments. While these women are depicted amongst the luxuries and comfort of domestic life, there is a feeling of isolation and an ominous undercurrent present in the paintings. As reflected in self-portraits of the artist sleeping nestled under plush bedding, Livingston points out that, “we are most vulnerable when we feel the most protected.” In these works, the artist places the viewer in the position of voyeur. We peer as if through a window into comfortable abodes for a glimpse of the inhabitants often pictured against backdrops of richly patterned wallpaper and domestic objects.

In Livingston’s recent scenes of country homes, where porch lights glow amidst a darkened landscape, she suggests, “they are both safe houses and defenseless outposts about to be consumed by night.”