Elizabeth Chiles

Catalog
Poppies Seeing Poppies Catalog
View Stardust Dialogues Pricelist

A dreamy, softly blurred image of wildflowers with orange, purple, and green hues, overlaid with a translucent, watercolor-like texture—evoking an ethereal, abstract vibe perfect for art exhibitions.
Wildflowers and grasses grow in the foreground, with a faded artistic overlay of large daisies and plant silhouettes in the background, creating a layered and textured natural scene.
A delicate, translucent flower silhouette with a long stem and buds is projected on a light, textured surface. Soft shadows of other plants and branches create a tranquil, ethereal ambiance in the background—a scene reminiscent of an Elizabeth Chiles piece.
Tall purple and pink delphinium flowers are silhouetted against a cream canvas with the shadow of a tree by Elizabeth Chiles. The scene is softly lit, creating a serene and artistic atmosphere that feels timeless yet reflective of the year 2025's creative essence.
A grid of 15 photos by Elizabeth Chiles, each featuring a single flower with various shades and lighting. The flowers have long green stems and translucent petals in different colors including yellow, pink, purple, and red. The background is soft and blurred, highlighting the flowers.
A serene garden scene with a variety of tall, slender purple and orange flowers and green foliage against a light, textured background. The leaves and flowers cast soft shadows, creating a tranquil and natural atmosphere reminiscent of an Elizabeth Chiles painting.
A silhouette of a person with raised arms is surrounded by abstract floral designs in shades of yellow, green, and purple. Elizabeth Chiles' 2025 inspiration shines through layered textures, crafting a dreamy effect with overlapping flowers and leaves.
Silhouettes of various wildflowers and plants are layered against a bright yellow background, evoking a sunlit meadow. The soft, abstract shapes suggest an artistic vision reminiscent of Elizabeth Chiles' works, offering a dreamy interpretation of nature in 2025.
Artistic depiction of wildflowers by Elizabeth Chiles features pale stems and leaves against a light background. In this 2025 piece, an abstract sun in orange and yellow dominates the top section, while a small bird silhouette gracefully flies nearby.
Abstract artwork by Elizabeth Chiles, featuring floral shapes resembling daisies or asters. The flowers bloom in hues of white, orange, and green against a textured beige background, creating an ethereal impressionistic effect that feels timeless yet evocatively futuristic like the year 2025.
Abstract image of wildflowers with thin stems and delicate petals, reminiscent of an Elizabeth Chiles masterpiece. The background features soft, blurred hues of yellow, orange, and gray, evoking a dreamy, ethereal atmosphere akin to an artistic vision for 2025.
Artistic image of flowers and foliage with a watercolor effect by Elizabeth Chiles. Silhouettes of daisies and grasses emerge against a light, textured background, crafting a dreamy, layered look that's set to inspire in 2025.
Wildflowers with thin green stems and vivid orange and pink petals are silhouetted against a soft, textured background, reminiscent of Elizabeth Chiles' style. Shadows of additional flowers add depth, creating a layered, dreamy effect in this 2025-inspired scene.
A field of wildflowers with bright orange and yellow petals set against Elizabeth Chiles' textured, abstract background. The flowers, varying in size, create depth and movement with some stems and leaves visible, capturing the serene beauty of nature in 2025.
An abstract image by Elizabeth Chiles features vibrant leaves in autumn colors—orange, yellow, red, and green—overlapping with a translucent effect against a light background. This 2025 masterpiece captures the essence of fall's radiant palette.
A vibrant, abstract image by Elizabeth Chiles depicts overlapping leaves in shades of purple, green, and blue. Creating a kaleidoscope effect for 2025, the intricate patterns blend against a backdrop of mixed colors, evoking nature's complexity.
Abstract image featuring layered, translucent leaves in various shades of green, purple, and yellow by visionary artist Elizabeth Chiles. The overlapping leaves create a textured pattern that captures the vibrant hues and dynamic aesthetic celebrated in 2025.
Abstract artwork by Elizabeth Chiles, set in 2025, featuring layered, overlapping leaves with textured, multicolored patterns in shades of green, purple, and brown. The composition creates a complex, vibrant visual effect with a masterful mix of light and shadow.
Abstract composition of overlapping leaves with a mix of colors, including purple, green, and yellow. Reminiscent of Elizabeth Chiles' anticipated 2025 collection, the translucent layers create a textured and dynamic visual effect.
Poppies Seeing Poppies
A grid of 15 photos by Elizabeth Chiles, each featuring a single flower with various shades and lighting. The flowers have long green stems and translucent petals in different colors including yellow, pink, purple, and red. The background is soft and blurred, highlighting the flowers.
A delicate pink poppy flower with green leaves and a bud is featured against a light neutral background. The flower has a slightly translucent texture, with hints of the stem and leaves showing through the petals.
A pale yellow flower with ruffled edges and a long, slender stem stands against a soft cream background. The green, serrated leaves near the stem appear layered and partially transparent, giving the image a delicate, ethereal quality.
A single pink poppy flower with delicate, thin petals and dark center stands against a light, plain background. The flower is attached to a green stem with small, irregularly shaped leaves. The entire image has a soft, dreamy atmosphere.
A light-colored fabric with a flower-shaped cutout reveals a blurred view of a green plant and small purple flowers behind it. Soft natural light enhances the delicate and artistic composition.
A single dried flower with thin, brown, leafless stems and partially wilted petals is pictured against a pale, neutral background. The flower has a tall, delicate appearance with additional smaller buds along the stem and hints of pink and green near the center.
A single flower with a tall stem and jagged leaves is shown in soft focus against a pale, light yellow and white background, creating a dreamy, minimalistic effect.
A single tall pink flower with a long stem stands against a plain light-colored background. The stem has several green jagged leaves and small buds, with the flower partially shaded, making it appear slightly translucent.
A desaturated, withered plant with dry leaves and a single drooping flower head against a light, softly textured background. The plant appears fragile, highlighting its delicate and frail state.
A delicate, abstract depiction of a flower with a single stem and a petal characterized by painterly strokes of black and red. The background is minimalistic and light, enhancing the focus on the flower's artistic form.
A delicate flower with a tall, slender stem and multiple leaves is set against a light, shadow-dappled background. The intricate details of the plant are highlighted by the soft, natural lighting, creating a serene and minimalist composition.
A single pink and orange flower on a thin stem is partially obscured by a sheer, white, translucent curtain, creating a soft and dreamy effect.
Two delicate flowers, one with pink petals and the other with small red blossoms, stand against a softly lit, light fabric backdrop with leaf shadows, creating a dreamy, layered effect.
A minimalist illustration of a pink flower with a thin stem and leaves in shades of gray. The background is a soft, muted gradient of light pastel colors, creating a delicate and airy atmosphere.
A delicate, translucent flower petal with a pale pink hue stands against a plain, light background. Small magenta flowers and thin stems are subtly visible through the petal, giving the appearance of a layered nature scene within the petal itself.
A delicate piece of paper with a torn, irregular edge lays against a light, textured backdrop. Through the torn section of the paper, thin, tall blades of grass and the hint of a pink flower are visible, creating a subtle, natural overlay effect.
A minimalist image features the silhouette of a single flower with a delicate stem against a beige background. The petals are softly lit, creating gentle shadows that highlight its delicate texture. The background has subtle gradients, adding depth to the composition.
A single pink flower with soft petals is partially covered by a translucent, beige shape that casts shadows of delicate branches and leaves onto the petal, creating a layered, textured effect.

Elizabeth Chiles

Born: 1975, Austin, TX

Biography and Information

Biography
Elizabeth Chiles (b. 1975) creates digitally edited photographic collages of flowers and light that echo themes beyond the physical. The evocative, almost abstract images are reflections of her inquiries into the interconnectedness and ephemerality of life on earth. She finds inspiration in seasonal changes of her garden and witnessing her daughter’s growth alongside it.

The photographs from her series Stardust Dialogues and Bread and Roses were constructed in the artist’s studio using a light box, fabric, and pressed flowers from the Asteraceae family (including daisies and sunflowers) that she harvests from her garden. The flatness and vibrancy of the forms bring to mind Pop Art, but with a far more subtle approach to subject matter.

In Time Being, Chiles photographs the flora in her garden in front of and behind a linen curtain, playing with the material plant matter and immaterial shadows. The ambient compositions of plant life, shadows, and transparent silhouettes give the impression of a borderless garden: a heavenly paradise in full, eternal bloom.

The Poppies Seeing Poppies images are a blending of the portrait, still life, and landscape genres. Nearly abstract snippets of garden are visible through the delicate silhouettes of singular poppies, which stand elegantly against the linen background.

The Weave series began in 2017 when Chiles’s daughter was a baby and the artist began teaching her to interact with and appreciate the natural world. To create these images, Chiles digitally layered close-up photographs of her garden’s foliage, inverting, colorizing, and over-exposing the sections of overlapped leaves.

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), and the Texas Biennial. She is included in The Collector’s Guide to New Art Photography, organized by Humble Arts at the Chelsea Art Museum, NY. Chiles holds a BA in art history from Columbia University and an MFA 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—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

2020
Keeper of the Hearth, Houston Center for Photography, Houston, TX

2017
InFocus v. 2, Phoenix Art Museum, AZ
Lumens & Currents, Elizabeth Chiles and John Swanger, Grayduck Gallery, Austin, TX

2016
Post Hudson, Frontispiece Hudson, Coxsackie, NY
In the Space of Summer (w/Karen Cleveland and Olivia Valentine), Whitespec, Atlanta, GA
Beauty Is Everywhere or We’ll Break Your Bones, Installations and Experiences by Elizabeth Jean Chiles and Beverly Jane Bajema, Pleasure Palace, Austin, TX

2015, 2011
UT Austin Faculty Show, Visual Arts Center, Austin, TX

2014
InFocus, Phoenix Art Museum, AZ
Mail Art, Franklin Street Works, Stamford, CT
On the Road, Aperture Foundation Benefit, New York, NY

2013
Moving/Still, curated by Kerry Inman, Houston Center for Photography & Fotofest
Her, Rolla Foundation, Bruzella, Switzerland

2012
Texas State University Faculty Exhibition, San Marcos, TX
Then and Now, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Milwaukee, WI

2011
New Art Photography, Chelsea Art Museum, curated by Vanessa Kramer, New York, NY
Texas Biennial, Austin, TX
15 to Watch: New Art in Austin, Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX

2010
Deck the Walls, John Cleary Gallery, Houston, TX

2005
Home, Root Division, San Francisco, CA

2004
San Francisco Art Institute at Stanford University, curated by Charles Boone, Stanford University, Stanford, CA

2002
Fragments of Contemporary Urban Life, Diego Rivera Gallery; San Francisco City Hall; Michaelis Gallery, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Collections
The Archer Hotel, New York and Austin
The City of Austin AIPP
The City of Houston Civic Art Collection
The Contemporary Austin
Dell Children’s Hospital, Austin
Dimensional Worldwide
Google
The Line Hotel, ATX, DC, LA
The Rolla Foundation, Switzerland
Sidley Austin LLP, New York

Awards
2015–2021 City of Austin, Core Funding Grant
2018 Nominated for Best Artist in Austin, Austin Critics Table
2016 Nominated for Best Solo Exhibition in Austin, Austin Critics Table
2017 Finalist, Art Pace Residency, selected by Michelle Grabner
2015 The Contemporary Austin, Collectors’ Circle print commission
2014 Finalist, Art Pace Residency, selected by Mika Yoshitake, Assistant Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
2014 Fellowship, Hambidge, Creative Residency Program
2011 Best Photographers to Lakes Were Rivers, Austin Chronicle
2014 Nominated for Best Museum Exhibition for Contemporary Photographic Practice and the Archive, Harry Ransom Center, Critics Table Awards

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