Born in Charlottesville, VA.
Lives and works in Southern California.
Education
2009 MFA Spatial Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
2007 BFA Studio Art, University of Colorado, Boulder
Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions
2020 Logical Mutations- Elizabeth Folk and Colin Roberts, LAUNCH LA, Los Angeles, CA (two-person)
2019 You Are A Monument, Len G. Everett Gallery, Monmouth College, Monmouth, IL (solo)
2019 We Are Younger Now, Harold J. Mossi Gallery, Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA (solo)
2017 Those Legs Though!, Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science, and Technology, Santa Barbara, CA (solo)
2015 Off Ended and Tittilated, Glass Outhouse Gallery, Twentynine Palms, CA (solo)
Group Exhibitions and Performances
2022 Inverse Performance Art Festival, The Momentary, Bentonville, AR
2022 Other Places Art Fair, Torrance, CA
2022 The Body is a Home, Hyperspace, Los Angeles, CA
2022 Convoy, TSA invited artist for High Beams Collective, Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, Denver, CO
2022 Other Places Art Fair North, Santa Rosa, CA
2021 Creaturely, SCRANCH, Wonder Valley, CA
2021 CA Contemporary Sculpture, Chico Art Center, Chico, CA (
2020 Video Art Today, Shoebox Projects, Los Angeles, CA (online)
2020 Long Distance RADAR, Las Vegas, NV (online due to COVID-19)
2020 Perspectives, Czong Institute For Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
2019 Beyond Redemption, Backspace Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Soul of the Desert, 29 Palms Art Gallery, Twentynine Palms, CA
2018 Faculty Research Triennial, Cal Poly University Art Gallery, San Luis Obispo, CA
2018 Maiden LA, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Hollywood, CA
2018 The Future Can Only Be Told In Reverse, College of Creative Studies Gallery, University of California, Santa Barbara (curated by . Margo Bistis, Norman Klein, and Jane Mulfinger)
2018 San Francisco Movement Arts Festival, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA (in collaboration with Ally Bortolazzo)
2018 Solar Flare, Torrence Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA (catalogue)
2017 LA Road Concerts, Culver City, CA (performance in collaboration with Marc Bobro)
2017 Inverse Performance Art Festival, Foxhole Public House, Bentonville, AR (in collaboration with Marc Bobro, Ally
Bortolazzo and Charles Starr)
2016 Herd Around the World, G Studio, Santa Barbara, CA
2016 Final MAS, Torrence Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2016 Small Space Festival, Emergency Arts Building, Las Vegas, NV
2016 Making Sculpture Great Again, Brand Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2016 Stone Soup, Santa Barbara Arts Fund, Santa Barbara, CA
2015 Crit 001, Center Stage Theatre, Santa Barbara, CA (in collaboration with Ally Bortolazzo)
2015 Rush Hour, Perform Chinatown, Los Angeles, CA
2015 Post-Invisible, 102 Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA
2015 Mirrors and Windows, Copper Mountain College, Joshua Tree, CA
2014 On Edge Performance Festival, Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara, CA
2014 MAS Vegas, VAST Space Projects, Las Vegas, NV
2014 Faculty Biennial, Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara, CA
2014 MAS 7, Santa Monica Studios, Santa Monica, CA
2014 Talking to Strangers: An Evening of Spoken Word, Soho, Santa Barbara, CA (curated by Kip Fulbeck)
2014 Goo!, Faulkner Gallery, Santa Barbara Public Library, Santa Barbara, CA
2014 MAS Attack, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA
2013 Ritual, Mourning, and Performance, Highways Performance Space, Los Angeles, CA (in collaboration with Sofia Barrett- .
Ibarria and Andrea Dominguez)
2013 Familiar/Unfamiliar, Manual History Machine Satellite Experimental Venue, Joshua Tree, CA
2013 In Search Of..,. Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Brooklyn, NY
2012 Faculty Biennial, Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara, CA
2012 People Magnets, Jane Deering Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA (in collaboration with Patrick Melroy)
2012 Spirit Resurrection, Pacific Standard Time Festival, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, CA (curated by Liz Glynn)
2012 The Ca(n)on, Atkinson Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2012 CCS Faculty Show, College of Creative Studies Gallery, UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA
2012 Varsity Show, The Uppur Bunk, Goleta, CA
2011 Small Images, Atkinson Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2011 Centerpieces, Boulderado Hotel, Boulder, CO
2011 Chain Letter, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2011 SB Moves, Video between ads on Pumpflix gas pump-top screens, on view at 10 gas stations, Goleta and Santa Barbara, CA (curated . by Laurel Beckman)
2011 Eating Apples in Paradise, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA (curated by Miki Garcia)
2011 ZAP!, Wheelhouse, Santa Barbara, CA (curated by Laurel Beckman)
2011 From Dusk ‘til Drawn, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA
2010 Space Invaders, The Compound, Goleta, CA
2010 International Mail Art Show, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
2010 From Dusk ‘til Drawn, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA
2010 The “Small” Show, Montecito Frame and Gallery, Montecito, CA
2010 All the Theatre’s A Stage, Granada Theatre, Santa Barbara, CA
2010 Primavera Festival of Contemporary Arts and Digital Media, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA (collaborative performance . with composer Don Sedgwick)
2009 Dreamtigers, (UCSB MFA Exhibition), Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA (catalogue)
2009 Urban Jungle, Art From Scrap, Santa Barbara, CA (collaboration with Jennifer Vanderpool and students from El Puente High School)
2009 Supersonic, LA Art Fair, Los Angeles, CA (catalogue)
2008 Twelve, Ridley Tree Center, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
2008 Avant Garden, Community Gardens and Greenhouse, UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA
2008 don’t have much but I give it all to you, Old Gym, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
2008 Love Lab Experiment, Muddy Waters,, Santa Barbara, CA (performance)
2007 Just Put a Lil’ Spit On It, Multicultural Center, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
2007 Untitled Cleaning Interventions, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA (intervention)
2007 Emmetropia, Spring 2007 BFA Exhibition, University Gallery, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO (catalogue)
2007 Insurgence: Art Praxis Collective, Chicano Humanities and Arts Council, Norte Gallery, Denver, CO (catalogue)
2007 Farouche, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO, (performance, curated by Frances Charteris)
2007 One Nightstand, Factory 5, Albuquerque, NM
2006 Local Flavor, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
2006 Farouche, Atlas Performance Space, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO (performance)
2006 Downtown, Gallery ZXANTHIA, Denver, CO
2006 indent, Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, Denver, CO
2006 one small bag of fruit, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO (performance/ installation)
2006 In Through the Dog Door, Context Gallery (traveling gallery in Boulder/Denver from December- January)
2006 Pirate Gallery, Boulder, CO (intervention)
2005 Tongue, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO (performance)
Curatorial Projects
2016 Outdoor Cat (An Evening of Performance and Installation), Santa Barbara City College, CA (curator/producer/director)
2015 Vitamin 4D (An Evening of Performance and Installation), Santa Barbara City College, CA (curator/producer/director)
2013 Appetite for Construction, UCSB's Annual Undergraduate Art Exhibition, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
2013 Breath Implants (An Evening of Spoken Word), Multicultural Center, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA (co-producer/director . with Kip Fulbeck)
2013 Sugar, Spice, Innuendos, and Vice (An Evening of Performance and Installation), College of Creative Studies, UCSB, Santa Barbara, . CA (curator/producer/director)
2012 It’s Kind of A Red Habit (An Evening of Performance), University of California, Santa Barbara, CA (curator/producer/director)
2011 Unraveling (An Evening of Performance and Installation), University of California, Santa Barbara, CA (curator/producer/director)
2009 Power Baby: Stuck in Your Throat (An Evening of Performance and Installation), University of California, Santa Barbara, CA . . (curator/producer/director)
Awards/Grants/Fellowships
2018 Cal Poly Faculty Research Grant, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA
2009-10 Post-Graduate Teaching Fellowship, Art Department and College of Creative Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
2009 Visual, Performing, and Media Arts Award, Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, University of California, Santa Barbara
2009 Helen Award, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
2009 Levitan Fellowship, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
2009 Graduate Division Matching Fund (MFA exhibition award), University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
2007, 08 Departmental Grant, University of California at Santa Barbara, CA
2006 William Randolph Hearst Endowment for the Arts
2005, 06 Susan Irey Byrne Scholarship, University of Colorado, Boulder
Bibliography
2020 Michael Shaw, Interview, “SoCal Artist and Professor Elizabeth Folk: Zoom Teaching and Performance Art Tropes,” Episode #267, The Conversation Art Podcast. Podcast audio. May 2, 2020. https://theconversationartpodcast.libsyn.com/epis267-socal-artist-professor-elizabeth-folk
2019 Sarah Abrams, Interview, “Check Out Elizabeth Folk’s Artwork,” Voyage LA Magazine, November 27, 2019. http://voyagela.com/interview/check-elizabeth-folks-artwork/
2019 Kelsey Crain, Interview, “Elizabeth Folk Exhibit At Monmouth College,” WMOI Radio, Prarie Communications, Monmouth, IL, January 21, 2019.
2019 Duane Bonifer, Interview, “You Are A Monument,” Volume II, Number 17, The 1853 Podcast. Podcast audio. January 21, 2019.
2019 Barry McNamara, “Elizabeth Folk Reception to at Monmouth College with gallery reception, talk,” FM 95 Online, access date: October 31.
2019 “Elizabeth Folk exhibit to open January 18 with gallery reception, talk,” Daily Review Atlas, Monmouth, IL, January 17, 2019
2018 Terriann Ferrin, “New Exhibits Smoke and Mirrors and Solar Flare Premiere at the Torrance Art Museum,” Torrance Tribune, Torrance, CA, March 9, 2018.
2018 Smoke and Mirrors/Solar Flare. Edited by Manual History Machines. Torrance, CA: Torrance Art Museum, 2017. Exhibition catalogue.
2017 Anthony Moses Sanchez, Interview, “2017 Los Angeles Road Concerts,” Never Meet Your Heroes. Podcast audio. November 16.
2017 Katy Henriksen, Interview, “KUAF Arts Beat: Embracing Curiosity and Chance With Inverse Performance Art Festival,” KUAF Radio, University of Arkansas, Fayatteville, AK, March 30, 2017.
2017 Jesica DeBari, “Inquisitive Minds Rejoice, the Inverse Performance Art Festival is Back,” Fayatteville Flyer, Fayatteville AK, March 28, 2017.
2016 Josef Woodard, “New Ideas, Out of Old Town Goleta,” Scene Magazine, Santa Barbara News Press, Santa Barbara, CA, May 6, 2016. 28.
2016 Kristen Peterson, “Size Doesn’t Matter, Small Space Fest Packs a Punch at Emergency Arts,” Las Vegas Weekly, Las Vegas, NV, June 24, 2016.
2016 Charles Donelan, “Stone Soup at the Arts Fund: Can(n)on Studios Artists In Group Show,” Santa Barbara Independent, Santa Barbara, CA, May 18, 2016. 46.
2016 Kensey Thierry, “Time-Based Exhibition Premieres Impressive Live Art Performances,” The Channels, Santa Barbara, CA, May 2, 2016.
2015 Kurt Schaupper, “Glass Outhouse Show Opens With Reception,” The Desert Trail, Twentynine Palms, CA, January 2015.
2014 Ted Mills, “Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara Puts SB on Edge,” Scene Magazine, Santa Barbara News-Press, Santa Barbara, CA, September 12, 2014.
2012 Josef Woodard, “SBCC Atkinson Gallery introduces new faculty artists, new gallery space,” Santa Barbara News-Press, September 7, 2012.
2012 “Artists Liven Up the City College Campus,” www.thechannels.org, March 5, 2012.
2012 Josef Woodard, “Small space, big ideas,” Santa Barbara News-Press, Santa Barbara, CA, March 2, 2012.
2012 Charles Donelan, “Can(n)on Art Studios,” Santa Barbara Independent, Santa Barbara, CAMarch 5, 2012.
2011 Josef Woodard, “Speaking in a Compact Code - While much remains the same in SBCC's annual 'small images' show, a certain perceptual attitude in the iPhone era has changed the game to some degree,” Scene Magazine, Santa Barbara News-Press, Santa Barbara, CA, October 7, 2011.
2009 Josef Woodard, “Eyeing Mastery,” Santa Barbara News-Press, July 3, 2009.
2011 Charles Donelan, “A Real Eden,” Santa Barbara News-Press, March 30, 2011.
2009 Josef Woodard, “Beauty from and through chaos,” Arts Scene Magazine, Santa Barbara News-Press, Santa Barbara, CA, February 27, 2009.
2009 Charles Donelan, “Demand the Impossible,” Santa Barbara Independent, June 18, 2009.
2009 Erin J. Smith, “Contemporary Arts Forum Dreamtigers,” Casa Magazine, Santa Barbara, CA, June 5, 2009.
2009 Colin Gardner, “Elizabeth Folk, Just Play! Restaurant”. Edited by Miki Garcia. Santa Barbara, CA: Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, 2009. Exhibition catalogue.
2007 Emmetropia. Edited by Sally Elliot. Boulder, CO: University of Colorado, Boulder, 2007. Exhibition catalogue.
2007 Insurgence: Art Praxis Collective. Edited by George Rivera and Isa Rivero. Boulder, CO: University of Colorado, Boulder, 2007. Exhibition catalogue.
Lectures, Presentations, Workshops
2021 “Teaching Professional Development to Promote Equity, Empowerment, and Opportunity: Practical Tools from a Polytechnic Art and Design Department,” Presenter, Bridging the Gap: Supporting Our Students As Emerging Professionals, Foundations in Art: Theory and Education Conference, (virtual due to Covid, forthcoming April 16.)
2019 “Embodying Performance: A Movement and Performance Art Workshop with Elizabeth Folk,” Workshop Facilitator, Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA, July 6.
2019 “Hot Topics: Teaching Art Controversy,” Presenter, Art and Activism in Foundations, Foundations in Art: Theory and Education, Columbus, OH, April 5.
2019 “The Teepee Teacher: How a Student Art Controversy Revolutionized My Pedagogy,” Presenter, Contesting Space: Land, Nationality, Race, and Identity in Contemporary Art, Presenter, College Art Association Conference. New York, NY, February 18.
2018 “Using Controversy as a Vehicle for Discussing Diversity and Inclusion in the Classroom,” Presenter, Cal Poly Center for Teaching, Learning & Technology Winter Teaching Innovation Showcase, San Luis Obispo, CA, February 20.
2017 Artist Lecture, Art Department Colloquium, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, June 1.
2017 “The Teepee Teacher: How a Student Art Controversy Revolutionized My Pedagogy,” Presenter. To Transgress, or Not to Transgress? Strategies for Teaching and Discussing Art Controversies as Part of the Curriculum, Foundations in Art: Theory and Education Conference, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO, April 5.
2017 Artist Lecture, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, January 26.
2016 Artist Panel, Small Spaces Festival, Las Vegas, NV, June 18.
2016 Artist Panel, Santa Barbara Arts Fund, Santa Barbara, CA, May 11.
2016 Moderator, Crit 002, Professional Artist Critique Series, Santa Barbara, CA, May 5.
2016 Artist Lecture, Art Without Limits Art Career Day Conference, Santa Barbara, April 23.
2015 Facilitator, Performance Art Workshop, Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara, September 25.
2015 Presenter, SmArt Talk Series “Artists in Education” Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara, July 15.
2014 Presenter, Teen Insider Project, Santa Barbara, CA, November 15.
2013 Speaker, University of California, Santa Barbara Art Department Graduation, June 15.
2012 Panelist, Can(n)on Art Studios at Atkinson Gallery, Santa Barbara City College, March 14.
2010 Speaker, University of California, Santa Barbara Art Department Graduation, June 15.
2009 Panelist, 2009 MFA Artist Talk, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, 2009.