Elana Herzog’s work can be described as a form of domestic archaeology, often engaging architecture and other more intimate forms of material culture to consider aspects of ephemerality, entropy, pleasure and pain. Through the lens of textiles, she focuses on the global migration of culture and technology. Found and collected textiles form the basis of labor intensive, context-sensitive sculptural installations and discrete pieces--visually dynamic mashups, open to multiple readings.
Through a process of accumulation and excavation, Herzog creates and reveals relationships between disparate elements. By researching the ways that people and materials relocate and transform environments over time, and by considering the ways in which stylistic motifs and techniques morph and migrate within societies, she aims to challenge hierarchies of taste and class, beauty and ugliness.
Herzog was born in Toronto, Canada in 1954, and lives and works in New York City. She holds a B.A. from Bennington College and an M.F.A. from Alfred University. Her recent survey exhibition at Koffler Arts in Toronto was featured in both the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail. During the summer of 2025, Herzog was a resident at ArtPace San Antonio, followed by a solo exhibition there on view September 11, 2025 through January 18, 2026.
Exhibitions
Herzog’s solo and two person exhibitions include Cathouse Proper, Brooklyn; Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Sharjah Art Museum, UAE; Western Exhibitions, Chicago; The Boiler (Pierogi), and Smack Mellon, Brooklyn; the Aldrich Museum, Connecticut; Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Ithaca, New York; Diverseworks, Houston, Texas; and the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art in Missouri.
Group shows include The Brooklyn Museum; KinoSaito, Verplanck, NY; the National Academy of Arts and Design; Albertz Benda Gallery, NY; Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami; the David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center, Sleepy Hollow, NY; Museum of Arts and Design; The Tang Museum in Saratoga Springs, NY; The Weatherspoon Museum, Greensboro, NC and The Kohler Museum, Sheboygan, WI. Herzog has traveled to participate in shows in the Republic of Georgia, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Canada, Chile, and the Netherlands.
Publications, Awards, and Residencies
Herzog’s work has been reviewed in major publications including Art in America, Artforum, The New York Times, Hyperallergic, among others. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, AWAW Award; Louis Comfort TiffanyAward; NYFA Fellowships 2007/1999; Lillian Elliot Award; Lambent Fund Fellowship;JoanMitchell Award; and Foundation for Contemporary Art Emergency Grant. Residencies include Reach Projects; Yaddo; MacDowell; Joan Mitchell Center; Fountainhead; Albers Foundation; MW Sharpe Space Program; LMCC Workspace; Dieu Donne Paper; Wave Hill; Back Apartment Residency, St Petersburg, Russia.
