About

Many of my paintings depict ordinary human ideas and actions through extraordinary characters. I enjoy using bold color and patterns which serve as a foundation for the solitary, absurd and determined subjects I invent. I am attracted to the hard-edged, precise techniques found in pop art, graphic design, and comic art which I employ to produce direct, smoothly painted canvasses.

Recently developed work entitled POOLS IN MUSEUMS, began in 2019. These paintings depict imaginary galleries in a fictitious museum where pathways to view the art are made of pools of water. POOLS IN MUSEUMS was on view January 9-28, 2023, at The Peripoint, in downtown Bethesda, Maryland. An essay by art historian and critic Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D., accompanies this collection.

Elyse Harrison, December 2023

Elyse Harrison has been exhibiting her art since the mid 1970’s in the Washington, DC area. Her work includes paintings, mixed media sculptures and commercially commissioned site-specific murals. She has received numerous awards and grants throughout the years and maintains an active studio and a micro gallery in downtown Bethesda, Maryland. She was the owner-operator of Gallery Neptune, a regional contemporary gallery from 2003-2010, and the owner-operator of Studio Neptune, an art education program for children from 1990-2017, also located in downtown Bethesda, Maryland. Her art has been reviewed in The Washington Post, The Gazette Newspapers, Modernism Magazine and The Baltimore City Paper.

Recent exhibitions include “Pools in Museums”, “ModBird” and “A Visit to The Rice Bark Tree” in 2023 at The Peripoint in Bethesda, Maryland, “All Woman” in 2021 at Maison 10 in NYC and “Communicating Vessels” in 2020 at the American University Museum in Washington, DC.

Upcoming: Summer 2024, new work at Radius Gallery, Missoula Montana

A complete CV is available upon request.

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