About the Artist

Born in the heart of the Mississippi Delta in 1982, Elizabeth Barenis has been artistically-driven since childhood. She learned early in life that she has a passion for creative art--perhaps due to the fact that her parents owned and operated a music store. Her parents encouraged her pursuit of visual art by enrolling her in private art lessons at age 8. Those lessons continued for eight years, until she moved to Columbus, Mississippi, to attend the Mississippi School for Math and Science. There, she received the “Best Painter” award as well as the “Ideal of Creativity” peer award. Her college life began in Miami, Florida, and quickly moved to a smaller, more artistic setting at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree. Her self-designed curriculum included classes in philosophy, modern physics, music, and photography. After graduation, Barenis attended the summer institute at the Chautauqua School of Art, where she focused her efforts on painting. The Fall of 2004 saw Barenis back in Greenville, where she has since been working to develop her artistic career. She served as an Artist-in-Residence for VSA Arts of Mississippi for four consecutive years, has participated in many group shows in the area, and also displays her work at Posecai‘s Restaurant in Greenville. “The View from Here” was her fist solo exhibition, which opened November 6, 2008, and represented a span of three years’ work. In July of 2009, the Mississippi Arts Commission awarded Barenis a Visual Arts Fellowship Grant to fund the creation of a new body of work. Her series, "Nina's Roles," is a collection of four, 36"x36" acrylic paintings, which demonstrates the work which stemmed from the grant. In May of 2010, Barenis traveled to Harrisonburg, Virginia, to showcase two of her paintings in a juried art show at the Virginia Menonite Retirement Community. While in the area, Barenis photographed the landscape of the Shenandoah Valley, and some of those photos will be displayed at an upcoming three-person show in January 2012 at E.E. Bass Cultural Arts Center in Greenville. Recently, Barenis ventured to the West coast and is currently using photographs from her journey to compile a new series called, "The Scenic Route," which is scheduled for exhibition in May 2012 at the Germantown Performing Arts Center in Germantown, Tennessee.



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