Elizabeth Thach
MFA ’10 Fine Arts 2D
Trained as a painter, I use painting, sculpture, and craft elements to create works that explore material culture and human belief systems. I use bright colors and black graphic lines to create theatrical and humorous moments that offer oblique commentary on society, class, and gender. Form is interesting to me, but I am also exploring allegory and image making.
My textile works, crocheted and sewn out of wool, have evolved organically over the past decade as painting crossovers. They are slightly goofy reflections on painting and domestic decorative trends. The textile pieces utilize layers on multiple levels: the physicality of different wool threads in the making, and additionally, layers of visual referents from different time periods. More recently, I have been going back into older crochet works using embroidery and applique as a way of building the images further and commenting on gendered notions of handiwork and domestic furnishings. The embroidered works reference the sweet finish of a domestically produced home furnishing, but they are open-ended by design, and the imagery avoids easy understanding. The work also reflects on nostalgic notions for the past, and the endurance of human hope.
Elizabeth Thach is visual artist and curator based in Boston who incorporates painting, sculpture, and craft elements in bodies of work that explore intellectual history and material culture. Past awards include the Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Grant, the Berkshire Taconic Foundation Artist Fund Grant, the Weitzel-Barber Art Travel Prize, the Vermont Studio Center Individual Art Fellowship, and the George Nick Painting Prize.
