Brown Foundation Gallery

March 2 - May 26, 2024

ArtWalk Reception
Saturday, March 2, 2023
6 – 9 PM
Artist talk at 6:30 PM

These exhibitions are supported in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Texas Commission on the Arts. Artist accommodations generously provided by Hotel Lucine.

This exhibition is presented in conjunction with the FotoFest 2024 Biennial Participating Spaces program.

Elizabeth Chiles
THE WILD NEARBY

THE WILD NEARBY is an exhibition that continues Elizabeth Chiles’ exploration into the power of plants. The work celebrates the way nature prevails in the corners of the encroaching, built environment and the respite their presence offers. As wild spaces become mapped, inventoried, and shaped by humans, Chiles celebrates the ways nature shapes us and resists the encroaching pavement. Her work is a collaboration in dialogue with plants she encounters and reflects on how we are shaped by being in nature, and how we in turn, shape nature. Through photographic collages of plants she encounters in her daily interactions, Chiles creates feathery, animal-like tapestries that celebrate the textures and layering of plant foliage. Several works are hung loose on dowels, mirroring a hanging method often used with textiles. Her process mirrors the process plants undertake to draw energy from light, using the camera to process and explore the perception of physical and subjective worlds.

Elizabeth Chiles is an artist based in Austin, TX. Born in Austin and raised in Houston, TX, Chiles graduated with a B.A. in Art History from Columbia University and an M.F.A. in Photography from San Francisco Art Institute. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions in Austin at testsite, GrayDUCK Gallery, and the Austin Central Library, and at the Southwest School of Art in San Antonio. Group exhibitions include presentations at Houston Center for Photography, The Contemporary Austin, and The Chelsea Art Museum. Her work is held in public and private collections across the United States, including the City of Houston Civic Art Collection, Dell Children's Hospital, Dimensional Worldwide, Google, Sidley Austin, and The Line Hotel. Chiles served on the Board of Trustees and was co-chair of programming at the Austin Center for Photography from 2008–2015, and has served as a mentor to several young artists and a juror on a number of grants and awards panels. She is the recipient of City of Austin arts grants from 2014–2022. Chiles currently teaches photography at St. Edward’s University, and has taught over 30 courses in theory and photography at the University of Texas at Austin, Texas State University, and Southwestern University.

elizabethchiles.com