Sheila Elias

Sheila Elias Originally as an undergraduate from the Art Institute of Chicago, Sheila moved to LA, where she received her Masters of Fine Art (MFA) as a painter, photographer, and sculptor. She is alsoknown for her installation art, and collages made by combining paint and photographs. Through life experiences, there has been a transformation in her art through the digital age and she decided to venture into the realm of technology, by creating a new vision on the iPad. Sheila’s work has been shown widely in museums and galleries throughout the United States and abroad over the past three decades, including the New York Public Library, Bass Museum in Miami Beach, and the Musee des Arts Decoratifs at the Louvre Museum in Paris. Scores of public and private art collections include her art, and it has been reviewed in many newspapers and magazines. Recently Sheila showed at The Lowe Museum, University of Miami for five months showcasing 30 of her interactive iPad paintings. Last summer she was the only woman and the only American to participate in a 6-person exhibition in Lake Como, Italy as part of a show called “Interference”. The show asked each artist to examine the role between art and the role that technology plays in our everyday lives. Over a career spanning forty years, all corners of the country, a continually evolving and knowingly eclectic style, and an international exhibition record, Sheila has remained consistently true to her calling, vision, and spirit.

Artist Statement My work is about the layers of life and art history, seeking in it a connection between art aesthetics and social consciousness. I like to bring an awareness of new directions and individual inventiveness. My art, whether it is photography, sculpture, or paintings, has always been a visual interpretation of my internal landscape, which is significantly influenced by external landscapes.  Best known as a painter, and as a colorist, a strong graphic sensibility also under girds my work, whether abstract or figural making a mark with often volatile representations of the observed world, augmented with collage and even glitter. I have painted (and pasted, and constructed) with a loaded brush ever since my student days at the Art Institute of Chicago.  Since then, With the use of a finger I began to discover a new way of painting: through pixels. The evolution of technology has always paralleled my work throughout its development. From the original copy machine to today’s iPad, the influence of electronics permeates my process.

The Paintings of Sheila Elias were exposed:

- Museum of Art,

-Fort Lauderdale , FL;

-Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL;

-Il Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY;

-Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL;

-Museo contemporaneo di Kunsan, Corea;

-Nova Scotia Museum, Nova Scotia,Canada 

- Case private di collezionisti.

With the iPad Sheila has exhibited in a myriad of Apple Stores around the world:

- Santa Monica, California, Lincoln Center, New York, Aventura Mall, Miami e Apple Store IFC a Hong Kong.

- La serie iPad è stata esposta all'Art Basel di Hong Kong, al California Heritage Museum, alla
  Rosenthal Fine Arts di Chicago e alla Mayson Gallery di New York.

AWARDS

-  Metro Art International Medal, New York, NY, (giurati: Ivan Karp, Lisa Dennison)

-  Woman of the Year, 1986, presentato dalla Camera di Commercio di Tarzana, Tarzana, CA

-  Premio di bronzo, Art of California Magazine

-  Discovery Awards e Women of Vision Award, Weizmann Institute.

Denise Most Gerson, Lowe Art Museum

 “Sheila Elias is an artist’s artist – a painter, printmaker, sculptor, photographer, and champion of mixed media, whose pint-sized physical presence belies the Promethean energy she pours into and lavishes upon every single composition.”

Robert C Morgan, the curator, critic and Fulbright Scholar, wrote:

"As an artist, Sheila Elias' task is not a simple one. There is nothing lost or forsaken in her art. Recent large-scale works such as “Smoke Dancer” challenge the very core of human reality and reinterpret our thinking about global trends into something beyond the predictable."

- Jill Deupi, J.D., Ph.D. Beaux Arts Director & Chief Curator Lowe Art Museum wrote: “Grit and determination have served Elias well over the course of her long and distinguished career, which has equally benefited from her restless curiosity, enormous versatility, and
willingness to take risks. This nimbleness is reflected in the chameleon-like quality of her oeuvre, which includes sculpture, collage, drawing, photography, painting, and, now, painted pixels.”Regarding her iPad pieces.