Eliza Douglas

Eliza Douglas (born 1986) is a US American contemporary artist known primarily for their paintings and performances, though also works with sculpture and photography. Since the 2000s she has worked with music with different artists.

Their meta-paintings are often inspired by art, fashion, pop culture as well as different subcultures. Aside from being an artist Douglas has worked as a model for a variety of brands like Balenciaga, Helmut Lang and Vetements.

Life
Douglas grew up in the West Village in New York City. She holds a BA in film studies from Bard College, and attended the Städelschule in Frankfurt-Am-Main from 2015-2017. There she studied with Willem de Rooij. Aside from being an artist Douglas has worked as a model for Balenciaga and Vetements.

Douglas is the great-granddaughter of Dorothy Wolff Douglas, who was a professor of economics and departmental chair at Smith College. Her pieces, Shadow and Light and Blood and Bones are in Dorothy's memory. They were commissioned by and first exhibited at the Jewish Museum, New York.

Artwork
Douglas's work is interdisciplinary and ranges from paintings to performance. Douglas’s paintings are conceptually driven and combine realism, abstraction, and humor. Douglas has an unconventional approach to painting, bridging abstract painting with technical skill and conceptuality, often questioning authorship and authenticity. Citing Monika Baer and Maria Lassnig as inspirations. Eliza is represented by Air de Paris.

Douglas is a frequent collaborator with German artist Anne Imhof. Where Douglas has been a constant performer in Imhof’s work since 2016, first performing in Angst I at Kunsthalle Basel in 2016 and Angst II at the Hamburger Bahnhof also in 2016.

Musical career
An important aspect in Douglas’s work is collaboration, among many they have collaborated with Devendra Banhart, ANOHNI, Matteah Baim, Hercules and Love Affair and Puppies Puppies.

Douglas toured with Anohni for their 2006 European tour ‘TURNING’ Where Eliza appeared as one of the 13 New York City based women who were featured in the stage show. And also appeared in the subsequent documentary ‘Turning: A Film by Charles Atlas and Antony’ (2012) by Charles Atla. Douglas also starred in the music video for Anohni’s 2017 song PARADISE from the EP PARADISE. Douglas also co-created the music and performed in Sex, Imhof's 2019 piece for the Tate Modern and Faust, at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017, which won the Golden Lion. The Music for Sex was released as a collaborative album in 2021, with shared credit between Anne Imhof, Eliza Douglas and Billy Bultheel.

For the 2021 Carte Blanche at Palais de Tokyo, Douglas wrote and produced the music, did the art direction, casting, styling and performed for Imhof's artwork titled Nature Mortes.

Douglas has not only collaborated with other artists and musicians, they have worked with Versace, Balenciaga and Burberry for which they wrote the music and performed the soundtrack for the Burberry 2021 Spring Summer collection presentation.

Solo & Duo Exhibitions
Eliza Douglas and Lily van der Stokker, Parole, Air de Paris Paris (2023)

Everything Dies, Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf (2023)

The Whitney Biennal, VI VII, Oslo (2022)

Untitled, Overduin & Co, Los Angeles (2021)

Notre Mort, Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt (2021)

Old Tissues Filled with Tears, Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2018)

Eliza Douglas, The Jewish Museum, New York City New York (2018)

Eliza Douglas Anne Imhof, Galerie Buchholz, New York City New York (2017)

My Gleaming Soul / I am a Fireball, Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden (2017)

My Gleaming Soul, Museum Folkwang Essen (2017)

I Am All Soul, Air de Paris, Paris (2016)

Selected group shows
Canned Heat, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin (2023)

Barbe à Papa, CAPC, Bordeaux (2022)

Youth, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2022)

Lust for Life, Edward Ressle, Shanghai (2021)

Natures Mortes, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2021)

Green Go Home, Hua International Berlin Show Room, Berlin (2020)

Fuck You Be Nice, Air de Paris, Romainville (2020)

Studio Berlin, Berghain, Berlin (2020)

Ma cartographie : la collection Erling Kagge, Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles (2020)

Ups and Downs of a Flipped Planet, Galerie Huber Winter, Vienna (2020)

My C art ography, The Erling Kagge Collection, Santander Art gallery, Boadilla del Monte (2020)

''Milléniales. Peintures 2000-2020'', Méca - FRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Bordeaux (2020)

Sex, Castello di Rivoli, Rivoli (2020)

More, Air de Paris, Romainville (2019)

Eliza Douglas / Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo), Galerie Francesca Pia, Zürich (2019)

Nightfall, Mendes Wood DM, Bruxelles (2019)

Sex, The Art Institute Chicago, Chicago (2019)

Sex, Tate Modern, London (2019)

Mademoiselle, CRAC, Sète (2019)

Nightfall, Mendes Wood DM, Bruxelles (2018)

The Vitalist Economy of Painting, Galerie Neu, Berlin (2018)

The Seam, the Fault, the Flaw, Greenspon, New York (2018)

Nothing Will Be As Before, Tanya Leighton, Berlin (2018)

Hey woman!, Presenza, London (2018)

Untitled, James Fuentes, New York (2018)

Transitions, Rod Bianco gallery, Oslo (2017)

Cul-de-sac, Antenna Space, Shanghai (2017)

Therianthropy, Laura Bartlett Gallery, London (2017)

Monday is a Day Between Sunday and Tuesday, Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin (2017)

Summer show, 11 Columbia, Monaco (2016)

''Being There cur. Matt Williams'', Vilma Gold, London (2016)

Modeling career
Eliza Douglas modeled for the first time when they were 12 years old for Helmut Lang.

In 2016 they got recommended to Lotta Volkova, one of the main casting directors for Demna Gvasalia’s first show at Balenciaga. Douglas’s natural walk interested the creative director and they have modeled for Balenciaga opening or closing every show since.

For Balenciaga’s Spring/Summer 2022 show Clones, a CGI production attended by a small crowd, all 44 looks were modeled by Eliza Douglas thanks to a deepfake or other models with Douglas Photogrammetry-captured and CG-scanned face digitally grafted on.