Liz Nurenberg (b. 1978) is a Los Angeles based artist. She received a BFA from Grand Valley State University and a MFA from Claremont Graduate University. Liz is an Associate Professor at Otis College of Art and Design and a member of Tiger Strikes Asteroid Los Angeles. Liz was awarded a fellowship to Ox-Bow School of Art and Artist Residency and received a California Community Foundation Emerging Artist Grant. She has exhibited her work at such venues as the Holter Museum (Helena, Montana), Elephant Art Space (Los Angeles, CA), HilbertRaum Gallery (Berlin, Germany), and Galleri CC (Malmo, Sweden.
The focus of my practice and research is on touch and human interaction. My sculptures, all participatory, explore themes of connection, awkwardness, and personal space. Participants use or inhabit the pieces, making their bodies integral to the sculptural outcome. Whether through technology or gesture, we engage in many of our social interactions with our hands. My smaller work explores the intimacy we have with objects. They are hand holds and many are molds or use casts of my hands or fingers. The work explores the trace and impression of interaction. I’m interested in the presence and absence of our awareness during our physical experience. Materials and textures are used to enrich the tactile experience of the object. The work speaks to embodied knowledge and how we know to the objects we touch. They suggest ambiguous function and reference ergonomic form. Design inspiration is taken from everyday things, furniture, tools, and apparatus.