ARTIST BIOAlizah Lathrop is a contemporary painter from Maryland. She will complete her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting at Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, WV, in May 2020. She is pursuing an art administrative career in gallery and studio ownership, alongside continuing as a working artist. Alizah has exhibited in the Maryland Art Place in Baltimore MD, the Washington County Arts Council and Engine Room Gallery in Hagerstown, MD, and was awarded twice in the Juried Student Honors Exhibit at the Phaze 2 Gallery, Shepherdstown, WV. Additionally, her work has been included in the Literary and Arts publication Sans Merci, two years consecutively.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work focuses on creating visual unity between disparate imagery and process. In these mixed media paintings, I embrace imperfections by placing complications within my process—such as layering multiple images and masking off areas—to build a visual riddle that forces me to respond to the work in a continually intuitive, experimental, and problem-solving manner. This constant activity is as much a part of a piece as the final product. Color, form, and pattern are abstracted in flat, graphic planes and rendered in acrylic, which are balanced by oils that are reserved for the inherent opulent fragility in depictions and recreations of porcelain objects. The spatial elements of my paintings interact with locations—often times creating larger forms and patterns—blurring the gap between the paintings and the spaces they occupy.