Born in the era of the Beatles Elizabeth Peyton accompanies the stars of today. The members of the most popular bands are her heroes whom she paints in a very intensive way on sheets of MDF surfaced with primer applied with a knife.

Liam concerns Liam Gallagher of the band Oasis. Many of her portraits exhibit the androgynous qualities of the pre-teen popsters; a childlike, often feminine expression characterises their faces. The extremely red lips are conspicuous, making the rest of the face pale in comparison and freezing it into a motionless mask. The area around the eyes has a saturated depth of intensity, suggesting to the viewer a forcefulness which intensifies eye contact and produces an almost hypnotic melancholy and dreaminess. In the process, one feels transported into the subject’s present situation in the portrait and experiences it for a moment. The virtuoso brushwork alternates from impasto to a gossamer-thin glaze and is convincing with its dexterity in handling the surfaces. Runny drops lead almost automatically to the shadows that are necessary to produce plasticity.

Since Peyton portrays her friends (who are not stars) in a very similar way to the stars that she feels close to, one could say she paints friends as if they were stars, stars as if they were friends. Thus in a certain sense, the portraits which Elizabeth Peyton paints of young men and women of her own generation are also always self-portraits, and safeguard her own identity. They are also digressions about the possibilities of intimacy and integrity under the conditions created by a media society.

Georg Kargl, 2005 (translation: Tim Sharp)