Liz Coats

This work is constructed with layers of colour organised geometrically across the whole plane. The working process is balanced between pre-determined layering methods and combinatory outcomes that are uncontrived so that accidental correspondences emerge, particularly in the integration of ‘wet’ colour.

Liz Coats deals with abstraction in colour and purpose as a mathematician deals with the proposition of an intriguing equation. There is a certain geometry embedded in the composition of the paintings that goes deeper than the golden mean and taps into a kind of sacred geometry.

Within her whole practice Liz Coats has applied a rigorously cerebral and meditative discipline and observes that ” …An image is recognised in its active capacity in the moment and depending on the ability of the viewer to remain steady within an experience of surrounding flux (as in meditation – to be within the experience) … Hanging on a wall, the painting may simply be a reminder of one’s interior connectedness to things ‘outside’ the self”.

Elizabeth Coats was born in New Zealand in 1946. She studied a Diploma of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, 1968; Diploma of Education, Melbourne State College, 1977; College of Fine Arts, University of NSW, Master of Fine Arts, 1993-97. She has held about 21 solo exhibitions and 27 group exhibitions. Awards include Pollock – Krasner Foundation grant, Australian Post Graduate award, COFA, MFA research, University of NSW. Her work in held in a number of Collections including Melbourne University, Newcastle Art Gallery, New Parliament House, Art Gallery of NSW, and Auckland City Art Gallery.