Elizabeth Briel

«Bleu de Travail: Global Presence» Denim and cotton paper artwork, 100cm diameter, 2026. On view @poetics.of.material.2026 @hongkongvisualartscentre until 23rd March A series that delves into the nature of work - from the global, as here, to the overlooked minutae - how we define it, and how it defines us. From its making in a swimming pool on the grounds of @le_shakirail Paris to bringing in checked luggage to unwrapping and installing in Hong Kong with a wonderful team from @productionxpress , bringing these artworks to HK has been quite the journey. Thanks to everyone who's made this exhibition possible, from curator @lepresentinart to designer @lit_wh and the unstoppable @shanlukart We celebrate the exhibition this Friday 20th March. If you're in HK during Art Week, do join us then or at my denim paper demo this Sunday at Visual Arts Centre's 5th floor, 3-5pm @iapma #IAPMAartist

Images from "Home Is Always With You (for the diasporae) part of "IMPRESSIONS: What Lies Beneath" at L0 Gallery @jccac_artsvillage an associated project of @frenchmayartsfest til 6th June. Hand-embossed Xuan paper of life patterns from Paris and Hong Kong, 300 X 150cm - 500 x 220cm, 2024 Great cities like Hong Kong and Paris are where diaspora are created and come together. The subliminal patterns of our lives in these places are shared by residents of all backgrounds, and become an integral part of our memories as we come and go. The patterns in this installation come from the Parisian building where I stay when there; from the Hong Kong flat where I once lived; cafes I've frequented in the city; and public spaces in HK ie the metro and sidewalks. Embossed paper is difficult to photograph, moves in air currents and becomes a lightweight kinetic sculpture. I'm so pleased to be able to create large-scale art for a space like this, one rare in Hong Kong where my work can exist ephemerally in three dimensions. The best photo documentation has come from others who've given their permission to share it here. Thanks to engineers and staff at JCCAC, to Dabinlo's resourcefulness and eternally positive attitude in the face of gravity, and to Eunice Lam and Patrice Bodenand who saved us with wine. 📷 1: with "Home Is Always With You: HK" 📷2: @hgtxstudio 📷3: @frogsoares in the zaisu by @kevin_m_maher 📷4: @hgtxstudio 🎥5: @ansonouchina 📷6: @hgtxstudio 🎥7: installation view allowing light through pierced paper 📷8: @amandahs009 's new perspectives in the zaisu chair 📷9: what @amandahs009 saw 🎥10: @ansonouchina carving up and softening space and sounds with paper . . . . #handmadepaper #artinstallation #papersculpture #Diaspora #lifepatterns #tiles #hongkongtiles #paristiles #embossing #iapmamember #iapma #papierfaitmain #xuanpaper #宣纸

Photos of our Re-generations installation thanks to @mill6chat and many visitors who've sent them to us. The watermarked landscape was modeled on landscapes that form part of my personal migration (HK and California) with the idea that they might feel familiar to people who've lived along a coast, anywhere. The last photo documents my 'canceling the plate', i. e. destruction of the surface I used to create the watermark prints in my backlit portions of the installation, to ensure these are the only artworks of this design that will ever be made by me. When a printmaker finishes a true limited edition, traditionally they'd destroy the original physical matrix used to create that edition. This is the ultimate way of ensuring a print can never be made again. Artists who engraved or etched plates would destroy their copper plates by scoring them, altering them irrevocably. It sounds quaint in our age of (apparent) infinite digital reproduction, but prints made in the physical world have different parameters and possibilities. After making the watermark prints, I cut up the paper screen used to make them and reattached a portion of it to a smaller screen. Used it during a private demonstration for a cultural representative from the US Consulate that helped sponsor our project - a way of giving it a limited life in new form, for someone who'd helped to make it possible. "Re-generations", @benjaminhao and Elizabeth Briel with contributions by community members from @africacenterhk and students from HK Design Institute, 2022. 1.2 x 20 meters, handmade cotton rag paper, LED lights, @sinopia_pigments casein, natural dyes. Images 1-3: Credits: Exhibition view: Seed to Textile, CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile), Hong Kong, 2022 @lusher_photography 展場圖片：「種學織文」，CHAT六廠（六廠紡織文化藝術館），香港，2022 . . . . #artinstallation #lightartinstallation #handmadepaper #naturaldyes #indigo #ragpaper #chiffon #papierfaitmain #contemporaryart #installationart

🇫🇷🔻From the Paris Psychogeography series-in-progress: Recycled cotton paper pulp prints pigmented with used tobacco and cigarette papers from a single night @le_shakirail artists center, A3 size, 2026 Portraits of a city: its architectural orifices; its residues, discarded after momentary pleasures; its lives beyond the clichés. ____________________ Extrait de la série en cours « Paris Psychogeography » : tirages sur pâte de papier de coton recyclée, pigmentés avec du tabac et des papiers à cigarettes usagés d’une seule nuit @le_shakirail , centre d’artistes, format A3, 2026. Portraits d’une ville : ses orifices architecturaux ; ses résidus, abandonnés après des plaisirs éphémères ; sa vie au-delà des clichés. #handmadepaper #tabac #cigarettes #ragpaper #pulpprints

🇫🇷🔻 Images of «Half Chaotic/ Half Calm», two double-sided works of denim papers exhibited in TRANS-FORMAT @le_shakirail artists center, Paris 18 during Journées Européennes des Métiers d’Art A reflection on dualities and the desire to break free from the growing polarities within us, in our relationships, and in societies worldwide. Often I create works in pairs, but here for the first time I've made double sided works. Not strictly sculptural or bas reliefs, there are different configurations possible and each are designed to affect the viewer differently. Moitié Chaotique / Moitié Calme, denim and cotton papers of pre- and post-consumer waste, LEDs, 100cm 📷 of different combinations - some with pulp printing visible, backlit by LEDs, and images of works in progress 📸7 Still from video by @cpyrrhos --------------------------------- Images de « Moitié Chaotique / Moitié Calme », deux œuvres recto-verso en papier denim exposées à TRANS-FORMAT @le_shakirail , centre d'artistes, Paris 18. Une réflexion sur les dualités et le désir de s'affranchir des polarités croissantes qui nous habitent, qui imprègnent nos relations et les sociétés du monde entier. Je crée souvent des œuvres par paires, mais ici, c'est la première fois que je réalise des œuvres recto-verso. Ni strictement sculpturales ni en bas-relief, elles offrent différentes configurations, chacune conçue pour susciter un impact différent chez le spectateur. Moitié Chaotique / Moitié Calme, papiers denim et coton issus de déchets pré- et post-consommation, LED, 100 cm 📷 Différentes combinaisons – certaines avec impression sur pulpe visible, rétroéclairées par LED, et images d'œuvres en cours de réalisation 📸7 Image extraite d'une vidéo de @cpyrrhos #journéeseuropéennesdesmétiersdart #handmadepaper

«Immigration Papers» are a pathway through the idea, often espoused by far right movements worldwide, of immigrants being compared to weeds, or invasive species. "Immigration Papers I: Waiting" depicts leaves and flowers from the Black Locust tree (false acacia) an invasive North American species found abundantly in the Shakirail's Paris garden, The plant is rendered in graphite on paper of recycled cotton sourced from garment factories, is framed in  vintage wood and painter's silk, backlit by LEDs. The papers include traces of rain that fell as papers dried in the garden, dust and blades of weeds, leaves and seeds that blew into and adhered to the wet papers. Also recorded in these papers are traces of fauna from the Shakirail's garden as winter turned to spring: wet pathways of snails and furtive footsteps of children as they tore through wet paper while it dried in Shakirail's garden toolshed. «Immigration Papers I: Waiting» 80 x 120cm, 2026 🇫🇷 en commentaires 1 - installation @le_shakirail 2 - late night testing LEDs 3 - graphite painting mounted behind painter's silk sourced from @havanctb 4 - floating paper screen 5 - the making of, in inflatable pool 6 -8 - papers drying in Shakirail's garden and grounds 9 - lunar-like craters formed by rain 10 - dirt and tears created by children who ran over papers as they dried (in areas forbidden to the public) 11 - snails migrated into the studio from humid paper drying in the garden

That's a wrap! It's been a pleasure to exhibit at @hongkongvisualartscentre as part of @poetics.of.material.2026 , an exhibition of contemporary artists who incorporate a focus on materiality into our work. In my «Bleu de Travail» paper artworks, I chose to use denim to make the paper, as a way to reflect on denim's use as a decorative notion of work, as American propaganda, and the outsized influence my country of origin continues to have on the world. One of the world's most polluting textiles, denim is an American branded material, yet the fabric is named after a city in France [Nîmes], and the textile is produced almost exclusively in Asia - the world's best in Japan - and denim is worn worldwide. I will continue the series (currently comprised mainly of life patterns from my studio) over coming years as the world and the world of work continue to change. Thanks to the organizer @shanlukart to the curator @lepresentinart to designer @lit_wh & admin @puishan_art Installation @productionxpress and HK Arts Development Council's support of this exhibition 📷 @heyman_24 🎥 @patricebodenand ⁹

Before @chambredepapier Paris I organized other exhibitions in Hong Kong that interpreted places we live, reflecting the density of Kowloon (2019-20) and islands at the edge of the city (2007-8). In the heart of Kowloon I rented a 3-bedroom apartment, a 9th floor walkup, with the intent of creating an art residency (due to pandemic & politics this proved...complicated). In original vintage condition, its neglect had preserved architecture that for many HK people form part of family memories but not their present lives. I invited artists to create and exhibit works in and around this architecture. During my first stay in HK I invited artists on Lamma Island to exhibit in my studio- one where I first began to make paper in the bathtub! Inspiration for these projects came from working at a former legwarmer factory-turned-gallery during the first Liverpool Biennial Fringe. The site specific nature of the art we worked with and around, the creativity possible outside white box gallery walls, is what I've striven to create ever since. 1 - 3: Woven paper maps, video, digital prints on paper, @planb.art The Grid and the Skin: 2020 4-5: Painted paper sculptures by @g.o.h.u.n.g , 2019 6: Cyanotypes on paper that absorbed all daily sun from the site on selected dates 2017-19, @ebrielart 7: Painting installation before burning, #YipFung 2020 8: Art researcher #YangYeung giving a talk on Cantonese language and characters, 2019 9: "Subdivided" Cyanotype artworks made from the room's windows, with views of the windows reflected thrice through photos @ebrielart 10: Still from film «Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow» by @maggietanyc shot on the space's rooftop 11 & 12: @jo_farrell_photo 's photos of women in China whose feet had been bound, 2020 13-15: @robert.davis.photography 's photos of HK's dramatic transformation over 3 decades, 2008 16: Paul Lee's photos of Lamma Island butterflies / fauna, 2007 17; Ventilation Paintings from Kowloon art space, 2020 /#/ventilation-paintings/ 18: Workhaus door while preparing for Liverpool Biennial Fringe, 1999 Complete video of woven maps by Bowie Lee: https://www.bowielee.art/copy-of-weft-and-warp-2021-1

Abstractions of tools I use in the studio for the current series Bleu de Travail which will form part of the group exhibition Poetics of Material at @hongkongvisualartscentre next month They include my deconstructed coffee press, pulleys for my Hollander beater, lattices from my studio table....all objects of beauty to me because they make my life and art possible Denim paper pulp prints on cotton paper. (All pre-consumer waste from garment factories) A4 size currently. Soon some much much larger, I hope, if the inflatable swimming pool arrives on time! #Handmadepaper #PulpPrinting #PulpPainting #DenimPaper #PapierdeChiffon

#artist #exhibition2026 : the poetics of materials Artist 1. Elizabeth Briel California, US - Lives and works in Paris Bio Elizabeth Briel is a painter and printmaker who works primarily with paper as a response to where she lives - printing directly from architecture, making paper from linen and cotton textiles, and creating large-scale modular paper installations. Her work begins with materials imbued with meaning—papers devastated by a typhoon or made of military uniforms, paints of bone and lead. Born in California and raised in Minneapolis (BFA Painting, University of MN) and having lived in NYC and Boston before leaving the US in 2003, she lived full-time in Asia for two decades and now works between Paris and Hong Kong. Elizabeth Briel 是一位畫家與版畫藝術家，主要以紙材為創作媒介，回應她所居住與經驗的環境。她直接從建築表面進行印刷，以亞麻與棉質紡織品製紙，並創作大型模組化紙本裝置作品。她的創作往往始於富含意義的材料——例如遭颱風摧毀的紙張、由軍服製成的紙，或以骨粉與鉛製成的顏料。她出生於加州，在明尼阿波利斯成長（明尼蘇達大學繪畫學士），曾居住於紐約與波士頓，於 2003 年離開美國。此後二十年間長期居住於亞洲，目前於巴黎與香港之間工作。 Artists Statement I make art about where I am: geographically, emotionally, historically. My art is made with light, time, and chance, capturing the sun‘s UV rays or wind and a sensation of belonging nowhere yet anywhere. As an immigrant, I am outside looking in, buffeted by partially-understood languages and cultural norms, often welcomed, sometimes tolerated. This interior/exterior duality makes its way into many of my artworks, many of which begin in modular fashion. Via repetition of process or form they become flexible, site-specific installations. 創作陳述 我的創作關於「我身在何處」——在地理上、情感上，以及歷史之中。我的作品以光、時間與偶然性構成，捕捉陽光的紫外線、風的痕跡，以及一種既無所歸屬、卻又無處不在的感受。作為一名移民，我始終站在內與外之間：在部分理解的語言與文化規範中被推擠前行，有時受到歡迎，有時僅被容許存在。這種內／外的雙重狀態滲入了我許多作品之中，而這些作品往往以模組化的方式開始，透過製程或形式的重複，逐漸轉化為具有彈性、因地而生的場域特定裝置。 web: email: [email protected] #denim #paper #printmaking

2025 was a hell of a year, wherever and however you were. Thanks to those of you who've been gracious and kind and have given hugs, physical or virtual, well before being asked. Here's to a gentler 2026, y'all 1 - Dec Installing "Waves of Influence" at Taipa Artspace Macau @taipa_village_macau 2 - Dec Hosting a 'paper from recycled textiles' atelier with the French platform @wecandoo 3 - Dec At the opening of "Waves of Influence" 4 - Dec - Discussing my research of Chinese and European cobalt tiles and cultural transmission at HKBU / Beijing Normal University Zhuhai, organized by Dr @holger.briel [no relation!] 5 - Nov - @makie.mori with @bluecatpaper of recycled denim I used for HK workshops 6 - Nov - With @ioulia_akhmadeeva_projects at the home of #SoongChingLing a politician and scientist, also known as the wife of Sun Yat-Sen, who continues to inspire today 7 - Oct - Giving a talk @iapma paper conference Shanghai on contemporary, mostly industrial textiles made with paper. The IA made for occasionally interesting translations! Thanks #SurzhanaRadnaeva @traditional.futures for the photo 8 - Oct - In the studio in final production mode for Waves of Influence. Thanks @maoibc for the photo 9 - Aug - With #AndreasFatouros @abooktailorlab in Athens @tritonandshell Paper Lab. They kindly shared their Hollander beater with me for a week so I could transform denim into paper 10 - Mar - Experiments in Cobalt research @potteryworkshopjingdezhen 11 - Mar - Source imagery: our windows of artists-in-residence Jingdezhen 12 - Mar - N marbling in the studio! 13 - Feb - @juniorfritzjacquet sharing his paper works at @fondationhermes - A series of conferences about everything paper that dove into its many forms, introduced me to inspiring people and helped me begin to feel at home in Paris 14 - Feb - Life's materials arrived in a container from Hong Kong and, for now, rest in a Marais cave with kind neighbors 15 - Feb - Intern @natachalee.art organizing paper textiles 16 - Jan - View from @centrepompidou after a date with my favorite Parisien®, who more than anyone else has made me feel at home in Paris this year

Recent press clippings from print publications on my exhibition "Waves of Influence", at Taipa Artspace Macau until 4th February 2026. As an immigrant who lives in multiple languages, it means a lot to have my work written about in Portuguese and Traditional Chinese as well as English. Thanks to @lit_wh for the artist photo, to @macaucloser and @hoje_macau for the article, and to @pamwsc for all your help making the exhibition possible