george elsasser

bio

George Elsasser's photography reflects his long-standing interest in spirituality and psychology. In 2020, Daylight Books published his monograph American Psyche: The Unlit Cave, a key work in his exploration of these themes, which is held in libraries at Princeton, Columbia, Yale, the Chrysler Museum of Art, and the Getty Center, among others.

 American Psyche: The Unlit Cave is a conceptual arrangement of images (2005-2019) mirroring the artist's reactions to America's inability to live up to its claims of "liberty for all". The book incorporates Elsasser’s use of different photographic approaches, including isolated views of objects, candid street scenes, and abstract imagery.

 In 1997, he received a 20-year retrospective at the Hermitage Foundation Museum in Norfolk, Virginia. Fifty percent of the exhibition was devoted to his newest work at the time, Particle Pool, his first drawn strictly from nature. These were not traditional landscapes. He used the physical limitations of lens design, aberrations, distortions, and chromatic issues to create unique images that used the blending of color and line through transparency.

Elsasser's influences include spiritually inclined artists such as Minor White and Wassily Kandinsky various expressionists through time, Franz Marc, Joan Mitchell, and Anselm Kiefer. Tired of studying photographers in the late 90s, he studied painters, returning to photographers in the late 2000s.

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SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

1997 (20 yr. Retro.) Hermitage Foundation Museum. Norfolk, VA,

1992 EVMS Norfolk, VA,

1991 incidents & intersections, Peninsula Fine Arts Center. Newport News, VA,

1990 incidents, Petersburg Art League. Petersburg, VA,

1990 Old Dominion University. Norfolk, VA,

1990 MOCA (Satellite). Va. Beach, VA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1999 D’Art Center. Norfolk, VA,

1997 Virginia MOCA, Va. Beach, VA

1996 Virginia MOCA, Va. Beach, VA

1996 Crestar Gallery. Norfolk, VA

1995 Crestar Gallery. Norfolk, VA

1994 Crestar Gallery. Norfolk, VA

1991 World Trade Center. Norfolk, VA

1990 The Stanley Gallery. Norfolk, VA

1989 The Wells Theater. Norfolk, VA

1985 The Waterside. Norfolk, VA

1983 Old Dominion University. Norfolk, VA,

1982 Chrysler Museum of Art. Norfolk, VA

INTERVIEWS

2020 Abstract Magazine

1995 Port Folio Weekly, Virginia Beach, VA (12-26)

1990 The Progress Index, Petersburg, VA (6-22)

LECTURES & PRESENTATIONS

1999 VBPC Va. Beach, VA

1991 Peninsula Fine Arts Center. Newport News, VA

PUBLICATIONS

2020 "American Psyche: The Unlit Cave" (Daylight Books)

TEACHING

1992-1999 MOCA, Virginia Beach, VA,

1991-1992 Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Newport News, VA,

EDUCATION

1989-90 Graduate Study, Fine Arts, Old Dominion University / Norfolk State University

1989-90 Art Education Study K-12, Old Dominion University

1984 Bachelor of Arts, Fine Arts, Old Dominion University