Elizabeth Chiles
Born: 1975, Austin, TX
Biography and Information
Biography
Elizabeth Chiles (b. 1975) delves into realms beyond the physical to explore themes of peace, contemplation, and interconnectedness in her evocative photographs. In Time Being, Chiles uses the transparency of a piece of linen fabric to evoke ephemerality and the play between the material and immaterial. The Poppies Seeing Poppies act as portraits, where singular silhouettes of poppies are removed to reveal abstract garden scenes, similar to looking through a window.
Elizabeth Chiles is a lens-based artist and educator living in Austin, TX. Her work has been widely exhibited, including Over Time, a solo exhibition at Pump Project nominated for best solo show in Austin, 15 to Watch at the Austin Museum of Art (now The Contemporary Austin), The Texas Biennial, and The Collector’s Guide to New Art Photography, organized by Humble Arts at the Chelsea Art Museum, New York. Chiles holds a B.A. in Art History from Columbia University and an M.F.A. in Photography from San Francisco Art Institute.
Ecologist Suzanne Simard helps us reconceptualize how we live in relation not just to each other, but to the living Earth as a whole. She has shown that underground mycorrhizal networks in forests allow communication between trees and plants. The Earth’s soils are knit into contiguous living networks – rhizomatic in a Deleuzian sense – all connected, going on indefinitely in all directions. Plato’s societal fabric meets a material reality with plants’ underground connectivity, their networks interacting and affecting one another in response to human and other outside activity. These phenomenological exchanges with a shared living world inform the range of my work as I seek to make things that represent collaborative exchange with an environment. –Elizabeth Chiles
Education
2005
MFA Photography, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
1997
BA Art History, Columbia University, New York, NY
Solo Exhibitions
2025
Stardust Dialogues, Richard Levy Gallery at El Zaguán, Santa Fe, NM
Stardust Dialogues, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
2024
Time Being, Fotofest, Houston, TX
The Wild Nearby, Galveston Art Center, Galveston, TX
2021
Time Being, Grayduck Gallery, Austin, TX
2020
Nests and Other Places to Rest, The Line, Austin, TX
2019
On Water, Central Library, Austin, TX
Weave, Architectural Digest Design Show, New York, NY
2018
Weave, Grayduck Gallery, Austin, TX
2016
On My Mind, Again, Southwest School of the Arts, San Antonio, TX
Over Time, Pump Projects, Austin, TX
2014
On My Mind, Again, Canopy, Austin, TX
2010
Book of Praise, testsite, Austin, TX
2009
Visibility, Spartan, Austin, TX
Select Group Exhibitions
2023
Land/e/scape, Amy Casey, Elizabeth Chiles, Veronique La Parriere M, Foley Gallery, NYC
Inland/Outward, Foto Relevance, Houston, TX
Press
2025
Nakayla McClelland, ‘Stardust Dialogues explores the relationship between the physical and immaterial, Albuquerque Journal, May 21
2020
Lauren Moya Ford, Field Guided, Wildflower Magazine, March 1
2019
Trevor Scott, Elizabeth Chiles’ On Water exhibition at Central Library, CBS Austin program We Are Austin, July 15
2018
Austin Art Talk Podcast, Elizabeth Chiles – Weave, May 12
Melanie Jean, Elizabeth Chiles: Weave, Austin Chronicle, May 4
Erin Keever, Weaving light: In her newest photographic work, Elizabeth Chiles embraces serenity, Arts + Culture, May
Erin Keever, Weaving light: In her newest photographic work, Elizabeth Chiles embraces serenity, Sightlines Magazine, March
2017
Sam Anderson-Ramos, Elizabeth Chiles and John Swanger: Lumens & Currents at Grayduck Gallery, Austin Chronicle, January 6
2016
Photography project uses cloud formations to examine time, Austin American Statesman, April 14
Elizabeth Chiles: Over Time at Pump Projects, The Austin Chronicle, April 1
2016
7 things in 7 days, top things to do in Austin this week, Austin American Statesman, March 25
2015
Strange Pilgrims exhibition to come to The Contemporary Austin, The Daily Texan, September
Kate Green, Strange Pilgrims at The Contemporary Austin, Art Forum, November
2014
Wes Eichenwald, 5 Can’t Miss Stops at EAST 2014, Austin Way Magazine
Seth Orion Schwaiger, The nature of the [b]EAST, Arts & Culture, October 26
2013
Altamese Osborne, “MOVING/STILL: Recent Photographs by Texas Artists” Tries to Make Peace With Nature, Houston Press, September 24
Top 5 in Houston this week (Moving/Still at Fotofest & HCP), Glasstire, September
Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, Archives Inform Modern Photographers work at the Ransom Center, The Austin American Statesman, July 14
John Aielli, KUT, NPR in Austin interview, June 27
Luke Quinton, West Austin Studio Tour artist plays with light, nature and the cycles of life, The Austin American Statesman, April 25
Andy Campbell, In the Studio: Elizabeth Chiles, The Austin Chronicle, April 19
2012
Dark Matter, Critics Pick, Nashville Review, November
Katie Geha, Pictures of E.A.S.T, Glasstire, November
2011
Robert Faires, I Shutter to Think, Rising Stars in Austin, Austin Chronicle, May 20
2010
PBS television interview, Austin Museum of Art, March
Press Release
2025 Stardust Dialogues at El Zaguán
2025 Stardust Dialogues at Richard Levy Gallery
2024 Richard Levy Gallery at Atlanta Art Fair