Jeff Elrod

Jeff Elrod’s practice is rooted in the tradition of American twentieth-century abstraction. He is known for his paintings that employ a unique combination of digital and analog techniques. Early in his career, Elrod developed a method of making what he refers to as “frictionless drawings”:  gestural compositions that he creates in the virtual workspace with the use of a computer mouse and basic software. These renderings are then transferred onto canvas employing a combination of digital printing and manual application. Through this multifaceted process, the original drawings are adapted and transformed.  Elrod was among the first artists robustly to explore the pairing of digital and conventional painting techniques in order to expand the language of the medium; his working method has evolved in tandem with changes in technology. Throughout his work, Elrod aims to depict a kind of “screen space” in order to examine the dichotomy between traditional painterly space and the virtual space of the computer.

Elrod (b. 1966, Dallas, TX) has exhibited at numerous important institutions in the United States including MoMA PS1, New York, NY; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, FL; and Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO. Paintings by the artist are in included in prominent public collections such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection, Washington D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,  TX; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN. Elrod is the recipient of the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award (1998), and the Claire Hart De Goyer Award bestowed by the Dallas Museum of Art (1992).