Hey KDHamptons Art Collectors & Admirers:

Ille Arts is please to present “11”, a new body of work by New York artist Liz Markus, and you’re invited!!

As in all her previous exhibitions Markus named the show with a wink to pop culture. In this case, “11” is the number the amplifiers go up to in “This Is Spinal Tap,” the Rob Reiner film that started the mockumentary genre.

“These paintings are indeed one louder. They don’t stop at ten. They go to all the way to eleven,” shares the gallery. “Markus pulls out all the stops. Gone are the subtle and hazy landscapes of her latest show at ZieherSmith, “The Look Of Love.” There Markus captured a moody mix of romance and phsychedelia. In “11,” the brush strokes are confident and the saturated colors powerfully stain the unprimed canvases.

This show captures Markus’ experience in her studio and her personal life. In her own words the artist describes her process: “In May, my father became ill and passed away. I spent three weeks in Buffalo in the house I grew up in and I was thinking a lot about growing up in the late 70’s and having too much free time in the summer, hanging out with my brother, listening to music and watching TV…. From that, I ended up making paintings that look like they might be doodles out of some bored metal head high school kid’s history book.”

Markus says, “Gabor is my dad’s name. Somehow I started to draw his name like it was a logo for a metal band. I like to think of Gabor as been some huge metal band out of Eastern Europe.” Paying homage to such iconoclastic punk bands as the Ramones and maybe subconsciously referring back to the B-52s’ Rock Lobster, Markus’s paintings have the appearance of historical instagrams.

Her “Bill” painting is a De Kooning portrait, [below] but it also bears a great resemblance to her late father Gabor. In Liz Markus’ life, art and personal events coexist on one conscious level.

Make sure you check out this show!