Biography

Elizabeth Leister is a digital media artist whose research-based practice intersects art, technology and social issues that include climate change and violence against women.  Her projects act as meditations on the unreliability of memory and the passing of time conceptualized through a feminist perspective on the body in motion, poetics and transformations of the natural landscape.

Her videos and installations have been presented at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Morris Gallery at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Torrance Art Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art Bologna, Italy; The Drawing Center, Art in General, Apex Art and P.S. 122 in New York, Counterpath in Denver and Highways Performance Space and Gallery in Santa Monica in addition to various artist run spaces.

She has performed, often in collaboration with dancers and choreographers, at homeLA, LACE, and Highways Performance Space, Perform Chinatown and Beyond Baroque in Los Angeles, the Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries in Wales, the Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery at University of Reno, and Outpost Artists Resources in New York, among other venues.  Leister’s VR projects have been presented at FEMMEBIT,  Mana Body + Camera Festival and the Zed Festival in Italy. All Her Bodies, a VR experience, has been shown at XR for Change/Games for Change, the PiXii Festival, Recto VRso, Currents New Media Festival, The Wrong Biennial and FIVARS. Her video, Silent Gardens is in the public collection at the new, California Natural Resources Agency in Sacramento, California. She is a 2015 recipient of a COLA Fellowship, awarded by the Department of Cultural Affairs in Los Angeles.

Leister earned an MFA from The Milton Avery Graduate School of Fine Arts at Bard College and a BFA from Tyler School of Art at Temple University.  She is Associate Professor and Option Head of Emerging Media Production in the Cinema and Television Arts Department at CSUN.

Education

1999
Master of Fine Arts, Sculpture, The Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College, Annandale, NY

1986
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Painting, Magna Cum Laude, Tyler School of Art, Elkins Park, PA

1985
Yale Summer School of Art & Music, Fellowship, Norfolk, CT

Solo Exhibitions

2020   

 “Spirits/Sprites/Furies”, Video projection and AR, Maiden LA, Santa Monica, CA

2018

“Under the Wallpaper”, VR installation, Mt. San Jacinto College Art Gallery, San Jacinto, CA

“Three Walks: St Thomas / Folsom Lake / Salton Sea”, Winslow Garage, Los Angeles, CA

2014

"Strange Loop", Counterpath, Denver, CO

2011

"Marking, Very, Nearly, Away”, Interactive video installation, Highways Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

2006

“Every Body is Everywhere and Nowhere”, The Morris Gallery, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

2002

“Time/Travel”, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

Selected Group Exhibitions & Screenings

2022   Luminex 2.0, Projected Realities, Los Angeles, CA

            Philadelphia Independent Film Festival, All Her Bodies, Philadelphia, PA

            North Dakota Human Rights Festival, All Her Bodies, Plains Art Museum

2021

Qld XR Festival, Queensland, Australia

          The Wrong Biennale No5, VR One (But Many) Pavilion, online

Terni Film Festival, All Her Bodies, Terni, Italy

           Thinking Through Drawing Symposium, Unlocking, Bending, Closely Breaking Round, online

           Zed Festival, Rockhaven Creepers Trilogy, The Museum of Modern Art Bologna, Bologna, Italy

XR for Change/Games for Change Festival, “All Her Bodies”, online

Currents New Media Festival, “All Her Bodies”, online

PiXii Festival, “All Her Bodies”, online

Recto VRso International Digital Art Festival, “All Her Bodies”, Laval, France, online

FIVARS, “All Her Bodies”, online 

2020

Changemakers Showcase, curated by Games for Change and Kaleidoscope, Unity for Humanity Summit, “All Her Bodies”, online

French Museums Exhibition, Artivive AR exhibition, Vienna, Austria  

Digital Power, online exhibition, SIGGRAPH, Washington DC

Cadence: Video Poetry Festival, Seattle, WA

ByDesign Film Festival, VR screening, Seattle, WA

2019

RadianceVR, International Research Platform for VR Experiences in Visual Art, online/Berlin-based – inclusion in database.

FEMMEBIT Biennial Festival, Civic Center Studios. Los Angeles, CA

REFEST, Culturehub LA at Navel, VR installation, Los Angeles, CA

MANA Contemporary Body + Camera Festival, VR screening, Chicago, IL

UFVA at MCAD, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN

New Media Exhibition, UFVA, Minneapolis, MN

2018

“Soft Bytes; A Feminist Animation Festival, Tiger Strikes Asteroid Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2017

Home/LA, “Larchmont: The Way Light Moves Through”, LA, CA, Monster Drawing Rally, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA

One Woman Shows, performance, project by Cindy Rehm for Animating the Archive, Pieter Space, Los Angeles, CA

COLA 20, Anniversary exhibition of the COLA fellowships, Barnsdall Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2016

En)Gendered (In)Equity: The Gallery Tally Poster Project, Organized by Micol Hebron, LACE, Los Angeles, CA

Traces with Sandy Mathern Smith, Kip Jones and John Osburn, Tiny Tutti Festival, Denison Museum, Denison Univ, Granville, OH

Adaptations at The Transversal Project, O Cinema/Wynwood, Miami, FL

Kinitiras-Artistic Network, video screening, Athens, Greece

Festival Miden, International Video Festival, Kalamata, Greece

New Media New Mexico 2016, The Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, NM

Currents: The Santa Fe International New Media Festival, Santa Fe, NM

On Our Radar, Creative Capital online database of artists from 2016, New York, NY

2015

COLA Exhibition, Barnsdall Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

9th Annual Carnival of e-Creativity, Shillong, Meghalaya, India

LA Woman: On Her Own Terms & Haunted, Pierce College Art Gallery, Woodland Hills, CA

Open Sessions 4, (with Maurice Carlin), The Drawing Center, New York, NY

Name It by Trying to Name It, (with Maurice Carlin), The Drawing Center, New York, NY

2014

MTV: Momentum Technology Video Film Festival, Institute for Women and Art, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ

Apollonian/Dionysian: The Constraints of Freedom, Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia, PA

CologneOFF X, International Video Festival, multiple venues

Momentum: Women/Art/Technology Directory, Institute for Women and Art, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ

Haunted, video screening, Marrickville Garage, Sydney, Australia

Haunted, video screening, Winslow Garage, Los Angeles, CA

2013

Margin Release Right, West Los Angeles College, Los Angeles, CA

Haunted, The Cultural Alliance of Long Beach, Long Beach, CA

"Fits and Starts" video screening, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA

Monster Drawing Rally, Outpost for Contemporary Art, Pasadena, CA

"Reflective Visions/Visionary Reflections", Accademia di Belle Arte di Firenze, Florence, Italy

2012

“Fits and Starts”, Agency, West Hollywood, CA

Low Lives, International Symposium on Electronic Art, Machine Wilderness, Albuquerque, NM

Fonlad, Digital Arts Festival, Coimbra, Portugal

On Our Radar, Creative Capital online database of artists, New York, NY

Déjà Vu, Aspect EZ: The Chronicle of New Media Art, screening and limited edition DVD, Boston, MA

White Hot Gold, Clara M. Eagle Gallery, Murray State University, Murray, KY

2011

“Pop-Up Films”, presented by Newtown Arts & Projections on Lake, Pasadena, CA

“Mediated Motion”, La Mama Galleria, New York, NY

“Vox” an evening of video and performance, Craftswoman House, Pasadena, CA

“Video: Recycled”, D-Block, Long Beach, CA

"TRAMPOLIM", Galeria Homero Massena, Vitória, Brasil

Performance

2016

"A Secondary Swirl on your Hardware", New Shoes 10, Highways Performance Space, Santa Monica, CA

2015

"the invisible lake called telepathy", COLA Exhibition, Barnsdall Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2014

"Strange Loop", Counterpath, Denver, CO

Squaring the Circle: Llano del Rio Centennial, Llano, CA

"Sky", Yoko Ono Fan Club, Visual Studies Gallery, University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY

2013

"I Can See You. You’re Not Here”,

Remote Encounters: Connecting bodies, collapsing spaces and temporal ubiquity in networked performance,

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries, Cardiff, Wales

2012

"Demolition”, Dystorpia, Outpost Artists Resources, Ridgewood, NY

"Disappeared”, Perform Chinatown, POVevolving Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

"Demolition”, performance, Low Lives 4: Networked Performance Festival, multiple international venues

"Here's The Moves", live-transmission performance, Spirit Resurrection, LACE, Los Angeles, CA

2011

"Duet #1”, Max 10 Performance Laboratory, Electric Lodge, Venice, CA

"An Artist’s Life Manifesto” directed by Marina Abramovic, performer, MOCA, Los Angeles, CA

"Mirror/Mirror”, live transmission performance, “Myself” exhibition,

Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery at the University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV

2010

"Hand Drawn", 6x6 #5: Mystery, live transmission performance, Cine Lab, Athens, Georgia

"I Can See You. You’re Not Here", live transmission performance, Low Lives 2, multiple US locations

2008

"Allan Kaprow, 18 Happenings in 6 Parts", by Steve Roden, “guest painter”, LACE, Los Angeles, CA

Public Commissions

2021

Silent Gardens, selected through Dyson & Womack, digital media wall installed at the California

Natural Resources Agency, Sacramento, CA

Grants and Awards

2019

RGS Summer Grant, CSUN, Northridge, CA

2018

Faculty Success Grant, Faculty Development, CSUN, Northridge, CA

2016

CCF Quick Grant, Creative Capacity Fund, Los Angeles, CA

Research, Scholarly & Creative Activities Grant, CSU Channel Islands, Camarillo, CA

2014

COLA Fellowship Grant, Department of Cultural Affairs, The City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

2009

Outstanding Faculty of the Year, Visual Communication, American InterContinental Univ., LA, CA

2008

Outstanding Faculty of the Year, Visual Communication, American InterContinental Univ., LA, CA

2007

“ARC,” grant, Durfee Foundation, Santa Monica, CA

2004

Faculty Development Grant, California State University, Channel Islands

2003

William Penn Foundation grant in conjunction with Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts

2002

Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Visual Arts Fellowship, Other Genres

Selected Lectures and Panels

2022     StimULI – Activating Public Art to Reimagine & Revitalize Communities, panelist, online, hosted

by NowArtLA and Urban Land Institute.

2021

FIVARS artists talk – International Women’s Day, “All Her Bodies”, Discord, online

SPARKS, presentation “All Her Bodies”, Digital Arts Community/SIGGRAPH, online

New Media Caucus Showcase, presentation “All Her Bodies”, College Art Association Conference, online

2020

The Booster, Stereopsia Europe World Immersion Forum, online

Femmes Futures Fall Showcase, Kaleidoscope Fund, online 

Women of Spatial: Creative Tech and Startup Summit, hosted by Kaleidoscope Fund and  Verizon 5G Lab and WXR, presentation on “All Her Bodies”, online

UFVA panel Creating XR Curriculum, online

Vail Visiting Artists Talk, Denison University, Granville Ohio

2018

Artists Talk in conjunction with Mount San Jacinto College Art Gallery, LA, CA

Lecture, Arts Alliance, Northridge, CA

Lecture, Women of CTVA, She Makes Media, CSUN, Northridge, CA

2017

COLA 20, Salon Conversation #8, panelist, Barnsdall Municipal Art Gallery, LA, CA

2015

“Enhanced Vision: Digital Video” panel, ACM, SIGGRAPH, Los Angeles, CA

2014

“Video /New Media: Art, Education, Entertainment and Business”, CSUCI, Camarillo, CA

2008

“The Creative Community” Channel 21 TV with David Starkey, guest artist, Santa Barbara, CA

2006

Art Talk, Art at Lunch program, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

2005

“Freedom, Risk and Discipline”, Art Department, California State Univ. Channel Islands, Camarillo, CA

“Artists Talk”, Art History Department, California State University Northridge, Northridge, CA

2002

“Artists Talk”, The Community Gallery at Nexus Foundation for Today’s Art, Philadelphia, PA

Selected Bibliography

2021     Jennifer Levine, “Virtual reality: 'All Her Bodies’, Pasatiempo, Santa Fe New Mexican, June 18th,

            2021    

            John Jaehnig, “FIVARS February Edition Showcases Virtual Reality Storytelling” AR Post, March

11, 2021

2020     Artist Interview, Artivive Blog, https://artivive.com/artist-interview-elizabeth-leister/

2019

Published in Full Blede Issue Eight: The Interpenetrate, LA, CA

2018

Published in Full Blede Issue Six: The Parapraxis, LA, CA

“Three Walks: St Thomas / Folsom Lake / Salton Sea” artist’s book, self-published

2017

Emergency Index 2016, The Bros. Lumiere for Ugly Duckling Presse

Contemporary Almanac 2017, Contemporary Performance Network

COLA 20, Anniversary exhibition catalog, Barnsdall Municipal Art Gallery, LA, CA

2016

Darrian O’Reilly on New Shoes #10, Riting, http://riting.la/post/155081659344/new-shoes-10

Landon Slangerup, Come Closer, The Den, March 7, 2016, https://news.denison.edu/2016/03/come-closer

Kaitlyn Specht, Visiting artist explores the body through abstract art, The Denisonian, March 1, 2016, http://www.denisonian.com/2016/03/anl/visiting-artist-explores-the-body-through-abstract-art/

2015

alphasixty, preview by April Wolfe, http://blog.sixtyhotels.com/c-o-l-fellowship-exhibition-barnsdall-art-park/

COLA Exhibition Catalog, essay by Susan Rosenberg, http://cola2015.lamag.org/

VIP - VideoChannel Interview Project, ArtvideoKOELN International, http://vip.newmediafest.org/

2014

Avishay Artsy, KCRW, Which Way LA?, A Socialist colony in Southern California, founded 100 years ago, May 21, 2014, http://blogs.kcrw.com/whichwayla/2014/05/a-socialist-colony-in-southern-california-founded-100-years-ago

Counterpath Interview, May, 2014, http://counterpathpress.blogspot.com/2014/05/elizabeth-leister-on-her-upcoming.html

STIGMART10/VideoFocus 14, online magazine, interview, http://issuu.com/stigmart10press/docs/stigmart_videofocus_-_special_issue

2013

Emergency Index 2012, The Bros. Lumiere for Ugly Duckling Presse.

2012

Michele Jaquis, Rise Industries, “Highlights from Perform Chinatown” http://riseindustries.org/arkv/3400/disapearing, July 26, 2012

Roberta Fallon, “New Media Art – White Hot Gold at Murray State”, theartblog.org, February 2, 2012

2011

Jeremy Stern, Joy Garnett & Mira Schor, “Myself, A Survey of Contemporary Self-Portraiture”, exhibition catalog,

Sheppard Fine Arts gallery, University of Nevada, Reno

2010

Jorge Rojas and various presenters, Low Lives 2, event catalog and DVD

2006

Edith Newhall, “Of-the-moment ‘Body’ Work”, The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 7, 2006

Roberta Fallon, “If a “Body” Catch a Body”, Philadelphia Weekly, June 14, 2006