Liz Edwards

press release: On Sept. 5, 5-9 pm: An opening reception for the works of local Madison artist, Liz Edwards, displayed at Black Locust Cafe September through the end of November.

Liz Edwards is a queer artist who grew up in Portland, OR and currently resides in Madison. Her art is a visual representation of her passion for the human body in all forms as well as a physical manifestation of her interpersonal struggles and triumphs. The human body is represented in her art both in a scientific and medical sense as well as in an extremely personal sense. Her studies in anatomy, physiology, and neuroscience have engrained within her a deep passion for exploring the human form and psyche and finding a way to perhaps one day understand it. Her personal explorations with gender, sexuality, depression, pain, anger, fear, happiness, and eventual emotional, spiritual, and physical acceptance led to the formation of her characteristic black-and-white dramatic realism style. Her pieces are an attempt to explore the visual beauty of the human body in all forms juxtaposed against the ugliness that society attempts to infect it with, particularly through pushing the limits of typical gender and sexuality representation. In addition, her recent work explores the emotions resulting from chronic physical pain and serves as a therapeutic exercise in dealing with her own.