LIZ GATES (b. 1969) Liz Gates is a Houston-based painter, sculptor, and mixed-media artist whose works are concerned with questions of gendered labor, self-manifestation, and feminist mother identity. Gates’ works are in dialogue with art historical representations of mother and child and are inspired by the many manifestations and dualities of motherhood. With her practice, Gates deconstructs and reimagines traditional objects and symbols associated with motherhood, such as diapers and baby shoes, in order to establish new narratives and associations for mother identity, the need for responsibility, and the desire for rebellion. Gates’ works serve as tangible and external representations of the internal processes that are integral in generating new representational space and modes of understanding. Liz Gates received her MFA from the University of Houston in 2022. Gates’ work has previously been shown at The Blaffer Art Museum, Lawndale Center for the Arts, Hardy and Nance Studios, Spendora Gardens, Elgin Street Studios, and Third Space Gallery. Her work was featured in Go Forth From Houston: Women in the Arts Take Action, an exhibition held by the University of Houston that commemorated the 1977 National Women’s Conference. EDUCATIONMFA Painting, University of HoustonBFA Painting, University of Houston, summa cum laudeAssociates Degree, Art Institute of Houston RELATED WORK EXPERIENCEFounder/Director, Elgin St Summer Intensive, University of Houston, 2021 - presentAdjunct Professor, Relief Printmaking and Silkscreen, University of Houston, 2022 - presentTeaching Fellow, Fundamentals of Painting and Relief Printmaking, University of Houston, 2020 - 2022 EXHIBITIONS Contemporary Texas Women Artists: Abstraction Here & Now, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, TX, 2022Texas Emerging: Volume III, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, TX, 2022Whole In Pieces, Monterroso Galler, Houston, TX, 202244th MFA Thesis Show, Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, TX, 2022This Mortal Coil, Elgin Street Studios, Houston, TX, 2022The Big Show, Lawndale Center for the Arts, Houston, TX, 2021Because I Said So*, Elgin Street Studios, Houston, TX, 2021 Emergence, Elgin Street Studios, Houston, TX, 2021Rise and Fall, Rise and Fall, Hardy and Nance Gallery, Houston, TX, 2021Maternology*, Elgin Street Studios, Houston, TX, 2021Student Show, Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, TX, 2021Disparate Parts, Elgin Street Studios, Houston, TX, 2021Preserved, Third Space Gallery, Houston, TX, 2020Student Show, Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, TX, 2019Tiny Art of Texas, 218 Co-Op Gallery, San Marcos, TX, 2019National Flower Show, James Surls’ Splendora Gardens, Cleveland, TX, 2018Go Forth: Women in the Arts Take Action, Continuing the Legacy of the 1977 NationalWomen’s Conference, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 2017* denotes solo exhibitions PUBLIC ARTOn How it Burns, University of Houston ARTIST STATEMENTDeconstructing and reimagining symbols of motherhood, the navigation of tension between competing forces anchors my process. Through repetition, rearrangement, and reinvention, I’m exploring the dichotomy between parenthood and individualism, as well as the tension between the need for responsibility and the desire for rebellion. My practice is a conjuring of the internal processes that are imperative in severing old identities so as to create space for new understandings. The resulting body of work centers around questions of gendered labor, feminist mother identity, and self-manifestation.