[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2025_New-Face_GLAESSNER-521-Courtesy-of-Elizabeth-Glaessner-and-P\u00b7P\u00b7O\u00b7W-New-York-Elizabeth-Glaessner-Photo-JSP-Art-Photography.jpg?w=1000″]<\/p>\n
\n\tElizabeth Glaessner\u2019s surreal paintings are animated by a mythic sensibility. Her figures occupy a primordial threshold where bodies, animals, and environments are in the process of coming into being. One particular canvas that Glaessner keeps in her studio reflects the metamorphic nature of her work: A vaguely humanoid figure is seated on the rump of a mammalian creature, folding inward between it and another animal\u2019s flank. Suspended between two forms, the figure\u2019s draping \u201carms\u201d dissolve into a translucent greenish mass, and bodily boundaries blur. This physical porousness is a hallmark of Glaessner\u2019s work, encouraging viewers to project their own interpretations and motives onto the painting as the relations among figures remain open-ended.<\/p>\n
\n\tOn the heels of her solo exhibition \u201cRunning Water,\u201d on view last year at P.P.O.W. in New York, Glaessner is preparing for a show opening at Perrotin Paris in early 2027. A recent visit to her Brooklyn studio offered an early look. Her walls are covered with postcard-size sketches and short poems\u2014Sylvia Plath\u2019s \u201cMetamorphosis\u201d and \u201cMirror,\u201d alongside Beatriz Miralles de Imperial\u2019s \u201cI bring forth voids\u201d\u2014as well as reference images by William Blake, Otto Dix, and Francisco de Goya. Sections of a wall are taped to mark the proportions of an upcoming triptych featuring at least 10 different figure-creatures.<\/p>\n
\n\tFor multipanel works, Glaessner likes to begin with charcoal drawings before moving to canvas, where she coaxes the composition into focus. \u201cIt takes time for the figures to \u2018catch,\u2019\u201d she explained. \u201cIt\u2019s as if the environment is putting tension on the painting and pushing the image to the forefront.\u201d This tension is evident in works like\u00a0Hot Spring<\/em>\u00a0(2025) and\u00a0Workhorse<\/em>\u00a0(2025), the latter depicting a feminine figure crouched on all fours. A smaller figure, half its body beyond frame, bends behind her with hazy limbs reaching toward (or morphing into) a disembodied head. The figures\u2019 edges are softened as if viewed through a fogged-up window.<\/p>\n \n\tThe same sense of ambiguity manifests in Glaessner\u2019s method. She paints with large brushes, even on smaller pieces, favoring broad, bodily gestures that resist overdefinition. She builds each scene by layering oil atop poured pigments, letting each pass subtly shift the forms. What ultimately emerges tends to diverge from the original sketch, shaped instead by accumulated decisions and incidental traces\u2014stray hairs, sediment, and other detritus folded into the canvas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-in-america\/columns\/mythic-mutable-elizabeth-glaessner-painting-ppow-perrotin-1234794960\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2025_New-Face_GLAESSNER-521-Courtesy-of-Elizabeth-Glaessner-and-P\u00b7P\u00b7O\u00b7W-New-York-Elizabeth-Glaessner-Photo-JSP-Art-Photography.jpg?w=1000″] Elizabeth Glaessner\u2019s surreal paintings are animated by a mythic sensibility. Her figures occupy a primordial threshold where bodies, animals, and environments are in the process of coming into being. One particular canvas that Glaessner keeps in her studio reflects the metamorphic nature of her work: A vaguely humanoid figure is seated on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2100500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2100500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2100500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2100500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2100500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2100500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2100500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}