Motherhood created for me both a disruption and an expansion in my sense of self. As I re-emerged into my more independent identity, my work reflected this experience, raising questions about the subjectivity of perception and the relationship, and tension, between the self and the larger world.
My paintings arise from my desire to define and hold onto my own sense of reality while also wishing to connect to others. Sometimes the two needs are in conflict. Psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott observed that artists are fueled by “the urgent need to communicate and the still more urgent need not to be found.” My work dances on that boundary, inviting the viewer in with glimpses of recognizable objects and spaces while also remaining mysterious.
Elisa earned her BFA in Printmaking from Washington University in St. Louis, with a minor in Art History. She also studied at the Santa Reparata Printmaking Studio in Florence, Italy, and the Vermont Studio Center. Her work has been exhibited in solo and two person shows at Elliot Smith Contemporary Art in St. Louis, Fontbonne University, and The Contemporary Art Workshop in Chicago, and she has taught painting and drawing at Webster University.
After moving to Philadelphia in 1999, Elisa drew inspiration from early motherhood, later stepping back to focus on family life. When she returned to her studio, she found freedom in its privacy—space to explore materials, ideas, and her own artistic voice, apart from outside influences. Over the past fifteen years, her continued practice has shaped a distinct process and visual language, and she now looks forward to reengaging in dialogue with the wider art world.
At the core of my practice is the question: How is our interpretation of what we see shaped by personal history? Each of us encounters the world through a distinct lens, informed by experience and memory. The iterative nature of my process itself becomes a personal lab on how individual perception develops and retains integrity within a large, loud world.
I develop each piece through an extended process that unfolds across photography, gouache, and oil painting. I begin by constructing miniature spaces of tiny domestic and natural objects, further complicated by the use of glass, reflections and water. I then photograph the scene, capturing details that can’t be seen with the naked eye. From these images, I create gouache studies, which I then photograph. When I enlarge those photos new layers of information are revealed; including drips, marks, and ghosts of earlier decisions. The much larger oil paintings synthesize these multiple sources, holding in tension the illusionistic space of photography and the material presence of paint.
Because this process can take months or years of intimate engagement, objects and their relationships accrue meaning in my imagination. Time, accumulated decisions, and unseen layers remain embedded in the surface. The resulting spaces are indefinite, shifting, and at times vertiginous. They suggest that reality is not fixed or singular but layered, provisional, and in flux. Rather than offering resolution, the work dwells in uncertainty, embracing not-knowing as a necessary condition for discovery — and for connection.
1991
BFA with Honors in studio art, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
Concentration: Printmaking | Minor: Art History
1990
Santa Reparata Studio, Florence, Italy
Intaglio printing
1995–1999
Adjunct Professor of Painting and Drawing, Webster University, St. Louis, MO
1996
Visiting Professor, Meramec Community College, St. Louis, MO
Visiting Professor, Forest Park Community College, St. Louis, MO
1999
Elisa Abeloff Turns Ordinary Scenes Into Master Strokes, Jeff Daniel, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (July 11)
1996
Interesting New Work from Familiar Hands, Robert Duffy, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Oct 17)
Column, Richard Byrne, Riverfront Times (Nov)
Drawings by Elisa Abeloff, River Styx Magazine (Oct)
A Silent, Enigmatic Drama, Robert Duffy, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Apr 11)
Review, Brian Smith, Art St. Louis, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Spring)
1993
MAC the Knife, Suzanne Langlois, Riverfront Times (Nov 10)
RAP’s Drawings a Feast for the Eye, Roberta Morgan, The Rockville Gazette (June 30)
1992
Lofty Ambitions, Jeannette Batz, Riverfront Times (Nov 11)
1991
Paintings at BAUhouse Leave Strong Impression, John Dorsey, The Baltimore Sun (July 17)
1990
Art Alumni Go On to Better—and Better—Things, John Dorsey, The Baltimore Sun (Feb)
1999
New Faces, Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO
1997
Elisa Abeloff, Contemporary Art Workshop, Chicago, IL
1996
Recent Paintings and Drawings, Forest Park Community College, St. Louis, MO
1993
A Particular Set, Gallery at MAC, St. Louis, MO
2019–2022, 2024
Souls Shot Portrait Project (traveling exhibitions), Philadelphia, PA and NJ
1998
Faculty Exhibition, Webster University, St. Louis, MO
1997
Two-Person Exhibition, World Trade Center, St. Louis, MO
Juried Group Show, Quincy Art Center, Quincy, IL
Group Exhibition, Hunt Gallery, St. Louis, MO
1996
Art St. Louis, Art St. Louis, MO Faculty Exhibition, Webster University, St. Louis, MO
1994
Juried Exhibition, Alcazar Gallery, Baltimore, MD
1993
Drawings Coast to Coast, Rockville Arts Place, Rockville, MD
1991
Northern National Juried Exhibition, Nicholet College LRC Gallery, Rhinelander, WI
Juried Show, The BAUhouse, Baltimore, MD
BFA Exhibition, Steinberg Gallery, Washington University in St. Louis, MO
1990
Alumni Exhibition, Baltimore School for the Arts, Baltimore, MD
National Society of Social Policy and Practice, Washington, DC
First National Bank, Columbia, MO
St. Louis University High School, St. Louis, MO
Choice in Dying, New York, NY
Jefferson/Keeler Printing Company, St. Louis, MO
Please contact the artist for purchases or commissions, ea@newsengin.com, www.elisaabeloff.com
