ELISABETH MLADENOV

Finnish, Berlin-bred artist Elisabeth Mladenov’s encounter with Houston set in motion a departure from her earlier approach to painting. An outpouring of large-scale, improvisational abstracts – influenced by the local flora and the in-between spaces of the city – has characterized her three years in Houston. She was awarded a Support for Artists and Creative Individuals grant by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance for her work in 2019. Mladenov’s paintings are comprised of layers of spontaneous, unplanned movements. The forms in these works are coincidental – developed through a painting technique akin to improvised dance. Choices, such as color palette, and tendencies, such as forms, take shape fortuitously within the confines of the artist’s form and formation. This comprehensive exhibition of Mladenov’s Houston work is also her leave-taking of the city.

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Elisabeth Mladenov established herself as a painter in Berlin after completing her MA at the Aalto University in Helsinki, her hometown. She is exhibited in various European capitals and has held three solo shows in Houston. Mladenov’s work method of recent years has developed from her view of human beings as one among other phenomena of the natural world. She is interested in attitudes of self-importance versus humility in human activity. In her own work, this has led her to shed control of her process through various automatic painting techniques. Her hope for any work of art is that it might meet the right viewer and become a passage into contemplative peace. She sees communion with art as similar to that with nature – a step towards winding down the tumult of life and making room for essential slower processes.