Taipa Village Cultural Association is honoured to invite Elizabeth Briel as an international artist for this year's art program finale, entitled "Waves of Influence". The exhibition showcases the distinctiveness of paper art created from recycled textiles, a rare art medium that is imbued with the concept of environmental sustainability. The show is sponsored by the Cultural Development Fund of the Macao SAR.
As a versatile artist, Elizabeth Briel possesses formidable expertise in architecture and heritage, which aligns seamlessly with Taipa Village Cultural Association's initiatives to integrate contemporary art, architecture and design in innovative ways. Supported by the association, "Waves of Influence" was completed this year and is being mounted alongside selected works from an earlier series by Elizabeth named "Impressions: What Lies Beneath Paris & Hong Kong", a Greater Bay Area project developed at a paper art centre in the Guangzhou region and will be exhibited in Taipa Village.
"Waves of Influence" will feature an art installation crafted from recycled denim and T-shirts, transformed into a flowing wall of Macanese blue and white tiles. The artwork, etched and silkscreened with acrylic, graphite, copper leaf and ink on cotton rag paper made from post-consumer denim and pre-consumer textile offcuts, features around 250 tiles, each measuring 30cm x 30 cm, that together cover an impressive 250 square feet in a one-of-a-kind blend of sustainable materials and intricate artistic techniques.
Elizabeth is a painter and printmaker who works mainly with paper as a response to where she lives, printing directly from architecture, making paper from linen and cotton, and creating large-scale modular paper installations. Her work begins with materials imbued with meaning—paper whipped by typhoons or made from military uniforms, and paints of bone and lead. Born in California and raised in Minneapolis, Elizabeth earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting at the University of Minnesota. Having lived in New York and Boston before leaving the US in 2003, she resided in Asia for two decades before moving to Paris on a Passport Talent artistic and cultural visa in 2024. She has exhibited in Europe, Asia and Australia, and returns to Asia for annual projects.
The concept behind, Elizabeth's latest exhibition in Macau is the product of hours of work on and around her Macanese studio table, inlaid with hand-painted blue and white Chinese porcelain created for the export market and brought by Americans to Hong Kong. She traced the porcelain's intricate designs, recalling Portuguese cobalt tiles in Macau's public spaces and the ways that the artform links disparate cultures, from China to the west. These blues are the art of empires, which, like paper and denim, have been interwoven across continents and centuries through migration, trade, power and conflict, transformed by people at every level of society as they have been incorporated into their lives. What particularly interested Briel were the cultural interactions between Chinese empires, Mediterranean caliphates and Iberian powers that catalysed the artistic media of paper and blue-and-white porcelain during the past millennium.
"In Macau, I explored Portuguese motif tiles on municipal structures and 20th century azulejos depicting the South China Sea," Elizabeth says. "While translating these designs into denim paper made from blue jeans, I studied the individual brushstrokes to grasp the decisions of their creators.
"To deepen my understanding, I travelled to Portugal and China to experience the tactile and sensory aspects of painting and glazing, including the challenges of working with metal glazes and the intense conditions of high-temperature firing." she explains.
"We are honoured to present the extraordinary paper installation by Elizabeth Briel," says João Ó, President of Taipa Village Cultural Association and curator of the exhibition. "While paper is often perceived as a fragile material, Elizabeth's work defies this notion by showcasing its true power and resilience. She transforms delicate paper into a striking and sustainable medium that captivates and inspires."
Taipa Village Cultural Association continues to bring together the endeavours of local and international artistic talents to exhibit myriad artworks in Taipa Village. This paper art exhibition presented by Elizabeth, with the association's support, further cements Taipa Village's position as a leading cultural and artistic destination in Macau and underlines its invaluable contribution to the promotion of the territory's cultural and creative industries.
Organiser:Taipa Village Cultural Association
Time of Event:12:00-20:00
Venue of Event:No. 29-31, Rua dos Mercadores, Taipa, Macau
Inquiry:(853) 2857 6212
E-mail:pamela.chan@taipavillagemacau.com
Website:
www.taipavillagemacau.org.moStart Time of Event:03/12/2025
End Time of Event:04/02/2026
Sponsor(s):Cultural Development Fund of the Macao SAR