Elizabeth Gridley

1989 / North Ringwood, Australia
Contemporary Surrealism Oil painting

About

Liz Gridley, born in 1989 in North Ringwood, Australia, is a contemporary realist oil painter based in Naarm (Melbourne). Introduced to life drawing as a teen through the Ringwood Art Society in 2003, she pursued realist painting studies at Monash University. Her work centers on hyper-emotion—distress from overstimulation and overwhelm, influenced by her ADHD diagnosis—exploring emotive human experiences, vulnerability, psychological conflict, and themes like death and death care through figurative oil paintings that connect viscerally with viewers.

Realist figurative painting with surreal emotional intensity

Selected Exhibitions

  • Empathy, My Witness (2018, Off The Kerb Gallery)
  • Antipodes 2023 (Beinart Gallery)
  • Beyond Original (Modern Eden Gallery)
  • Cornucopia (WOWXWOW)
  • Resurrection (2020, Off the Kerb Gallery)

Awards

  • Major Prize, Graeme Hildebrand Art Prize (2017)
  • 1st Prize: Painting & 2nd Prize: Drawing, Life Model Society Inaugural Art Prize
  • Featured Artist Award, Victorian Artists Society Coterie (2024)
  • Finalist, Lester Prize
  • Finalist, Live Well Die Well Art Prize (2025)
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