Artist Statement

Born in Queens, NY to a family of artists, inventors and actors, I grew up painting and writing. My work is now held in numerous private collections and has been exhibited in galleries and museums both in the U.S. and abroad, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The New York State Museum, The Orlando Museum of Art, The Zimmerli Archive, The U.S. State Department, and Trierenberg Holding AG (Austria).

My body of work -- described by New York Times critic Ken Johnson as a combination of "painterly verve and hellish beauty" -- is particularly concerned with examining and amplifying the intrinsic abstract beauty of deteriorating or overlooked corners of urban architecture, waterways and infrastructure. My present body of work is about the intense energy and mystery inherent in scrap yards and deteriorating buildings marked by human use and abandonment. I seek out an emotional engagement with these places, often spending many years studying, drawing and painting a single location as it ages.

The scrap yards interest me as sites of organized chaos, formally beautiful yet apocalyptic and terrifying. I seek to inform the viewer of the grandeur inherent in the experience of existing inside of a location that is large in scale and man-made, yet devoid of human presence. Nature often exists as an encroaching afterthought. The juxtapositions of conflicting images, such as man-made detritus with nature, serve as commentary on a post-9/11 sense of impermanence, and the imperative to consider the finite nature of the earth's resources.

"Acutely observed, remembered and then re-imagined, these futuristic scenes are not so much renditions of a specific location as they are dizzying translations in paint of Mitty's wonderment at the endless variety of visual information offered up by her subjects." -- Art in America, January 2006

Solo Exhibitions

2010A.M. Richard Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY
2008Windham Fine Arts, Windham, NY
2007Mercantile Building, Milwaukee, WI
2005Cheryl Pelavin Fine Art, New York, NY
2002Cheryl Pelavin Fine Art, New York, NY
1999Cheryl Pelavin Fine Art, New York, NY
1985Rosa Esman Gallery, New York, NY
1983Rosa Esman Gallery, New York, NY
1982Rosa Esman Gallery, New York, NY
1978Heath Gallery, Atlanta, GA

Selected Group Exhibitions

2010The Affordable Art Fair, New York, NY
2009"New York: Then and Now", ACA Galleries, New York, NY
2008Two Person Exhibition, Windham Fine Arts, Windham, NY
ArtHamptons, Bridgehampton, NY
Summer Exhibition of Monotypes, Cheryl Pelavin Gallery, New York, NY
Art in a Box, Cheryl Pelavin Gallery, New York, NY
2007"20 Years of Printmaking", Cheryl Pelavin Fine Art, New York, NY
Art in a Box, Cheryl Pelavin Gallery, New York, NY
2005"New Art: New Work: Reflections of the Human Condition", Trierenberg Holding AG, Traun, Austria
University of Missouri, Museum of Art and Archaeology, Colombia, MO
2002Alliance for Young Artists and Writers Annual Benefit, Diane Von Furstenberg Studio Gallery, New York, NY
"Landscapes, Real and Imagined, Rye Art Center, Rye, NY
Faculty Exhibition, Hofstra University, Hempstead NY
2001"Vessels", The St. Paul Company, Minneapolis, MN
1998Jay Gallery, Pelavin Editions, New York, NY
1997Berkshire Museum, 1996 Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, Dan Cameron, Curator, Pittsfield, MA
Lorraine Kessler Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY
1996Jay Gallery, Pelavin Editions, New York, NY
Faculty Exhibtion, SUNY at New Paltz, New Paltz, NY
1995"Summer Solstice", Stephen Rosenberg Gallery, New York, NY
Jay Gallery, Pelavin Editions, New York, NY
1994Nassau County Museum of Art, Exhibition of the Permanent Collection, Roslyn, NY
Faculty Exhibition, SUNY at New Paltz, New Paltz, NY
1993Queensborough Community College Art Gallery, Exhibition of Permanent Collection, Queens, NY
"Women Printmakers: An Intimate View", Queensborough Community College Gallery, Queens, NY
1992Faculty Exhibition, SUNY at New Paltz, New Paltz, NY
1991"Long Island Landscape Painting in the Twentieth Century" Museums at Stony Brook, NY
Group Exhibition, Berkshire Museum, Lisa Phillips, Curator, Pittsfield, MA
"In Search of the American Experience", Museum of the National Arts Foundation, New York, NY
1990"Contemporary Scenes of New York City", Associated American Artists Gallery, New York, NY
"Contemporary Prints: New York Workshops Create", Bronx Museum, NY
1985"The Artist Celebrates New York: Works From the Metropolitan Museum of Art", Traveling Exhibition: Bronx Museum, Long Island University, Jamaica Arts Center, Staten Island Museum, City College
"Gallery Artists and Friends", Rosa Esman Gallery, New York, NY
1982"Textured Plains", Proctor Arts Center, Bard College, Annandale on Hudson, New York, NY
1981"The Broken Surface", Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York and Bennington College, VT
1980Semaphore Gallery, New York, NY

Bibliography

Manhattan User's Guide February 4, 2010.
City Journal Cover Art Autumn 2009, Volume 19, Number 4.
Decker, Elisa. "Lizbeth Mitty at Cheryl Pelavin." Art In America January 2006, p. 125.
Johnson, Ken. "Art Guide: Other Galleries." The New York Times Weekend Section, February 1.
Schumacher, Mary Louise. "Turning Horror Into Art." The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel June 15.
Newhall, Edith. "On View." New York Magazine February 4, p. 70.
King, John. "Painting the Past, Hoping For the Future." San Francisco Chronicle January 16, p. A-21.
Boyle, Wickham. "Art Out of the Ashes of September 11." The Villager January 16, p. 12.
Perchinske, Marlene. Museum News. Univ. of Missouri Museum of Art and Archaeology, Winter, Cover Article.
Galinou, Mireille. London Arts Café Newsletter #11 Autumn/Winter, p. 9.
Henry, Gerrit. Art in America January, p. 117
Johnson, Ken. The New York Times May 7, p. E-36.
Smith, Roberta. The New York Times August 24, p. C-22.
Delantiner, Barbara. The New York Times, Long Island Edition June 17, p. C21.
Pisano, Ronald. Long Island Lanscape Painting in the Twentieth Century. Little Brown & Company, pp. 115-116.
McKinney, John. Three Village Herald June 20, p. 13.
Casamassima, Christy. Five One Six Magazine June, p. 8.
Lipson, Karin. Newsday August 10, part 2, p. 15 and May 27, part 2, p. 19.
Paquette, Carole. The Record July 5, pp. 19 and 28.
Hunter, Elizabeth. The Times Beacon, Leisure/Classified June 21, p. C5.
Temin, Christine. The Boston Globe August 31, p. 78.
"Darkness at Noon", Science Magazine July-August, p. 78.
Lucie-Smith, Edward. American Art Now. Morrow Incorporated, pp. 92 and 94.
Peplow, Joshua. Arts Magazine November.
Glueck, Grace. The New York Times, Weekend Section December 16.

Fellowships and Awards

Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant

Public and Corporate Collections

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
New York State Museum, Albany, NY
Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL
Zimmerli Archive, Rutgers University, NJ
Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
University of Missouri Museum of Art and Archaeology, Columbia, MO
Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn, NY
Trierenberg Holding AG, Traun, Austria
US Department of State, Washington, D.C.
Ameriprise Financial Corporation, New York, NY
Sanwa Capital Management, Japan
Greenpoint Savings Bank, New York, NY
Fidelity Financial, Boston, MA
Chemical Bank, New York, NY
New York Heart Association, New York, NY
United States Trust Company of New York, New York, NY
Queensborough Community College, Queens, NY
General Dynamics Crop., Falls Church, VA
Carey Ellis Company, Sacramento, CA
Centre Reinsurance of New York, New York, NY
Quad Graphics, Milwaukee, WI
Hanson Graphic, Milwaukee, WI
Tendler Real Estate, New York, NY
Simpson, Thatcher, Bartlett, New York, NY
Prudential Corporation, Newark, NJ
Equitable Life Assurance Society, New York, NY
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, New York, NY
US Trust Corporation, New York, NY
Oakbrook Bank, Oakbrook, IL
B. Riche, Berlin, Germany
Cleary, Gottleib, Steen, Hamilton, New York, NY
Kliegerman Group, Westport, CT

 

Education

1975University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI  M.F.A
1973 University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI  B.A.
1969-71SUNY at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY