Liz Rundorff Smith is a South Carolina-based contemporary artist known for her vibrant abstract paintings in encaustic, oil, and mixed media. Her practice elevates the mundane, exploring themes of memory, nostalgia, and the emotional resonance of personal keepsakes, vessels, and memorials.
Rundorff Smith's artwork is featured in notable public, corporate, and private collections internationally, including the Marilyn Monroe Bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Sun City Showa Kinen Koen in Tachikawa, Japan, and the Greenville County Museum of Art. Her work has been highlighted in publications such as Artsin Square, TOWN Carolina, and Create Magazine. Her recent exhibitions include But We’ve Come So Far at Susan Eley Fine Art (New York, NY), Street Garden at the Florence County Museum, and Nothing's Ever Really Wasted at the Greenville County Museum of Art.
She received a BA in Studio Art with a concentration in sculpture from the College of Wooster in 2000 and an MFA in Painting from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 2005. Rundorff Smith studied abroad at The Marchutz School of Painting in Aix en Provence, France, and the British Institute of Florence in Florence, Italy, and was awarded a fellowship and residency at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts.
I find inspiration in so many things - other artists, designers, having a great conversation, music, a good movie. I think abstraction is an excellent vehicle for funneling ideas into a visual language that is succinct. I’m especially interested in finding moments that are accidentally visually engaging. I love finding an interesting composition in something seemingly unplanned – like grass growing in a repetitive pattern in cracks in the pavement or the garden hose draping elegantly over an inflatable toy in the backyard.
