Liz Maw graduated from the Elam School of Fine Arts in 2002 and lives and works in Auckland. She was raised a Catholic, and her paintings are often a complex mixture of contemporary subjects and references from historic religious painting. In an attempt to create a new order of icon painting, she mixes the faces of celebrities or people she admires, with pseudo-religious symbols, often displaced by a “mystic glow”, through colour, stars and light. Maw’s paintings are ornately framed, emulating the style and appearance of European old masters. However, such ‘grand’ intentions are subverted by the detail and sensuous treatment of her subjects, celebrating and questioning distinctions between high and low art. She has work in the Auckland Art Gallery, the Chartwell Collection and Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand.

Website: www.lizmaw.com