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"Between the cartographic gridding, antiquarian touches, and embedded symbology, Wagner's work takes a mystical look back at, rather than a futuristic look ahead toward, the vault of heaven."" |
Richard Speer
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"Elise Wagner's encaustic sonatas are small, packing in plenty of surface and suggestive symbolism...Wagner uses organic forms to suggest nature without aping it..." Richard Speer,
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"Wagner seeks to interpret natural and celstial forces in her work...the artwork seems to act, however subtly, as a reminder that the world is born from such chaos ...Wagner is at her best when you can lose yourself in her work and - like natural occurrences - never see it quite the same way twice." Brian Libby
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| "Wagner's work, while vaguely interesting in reproduction, becomes all about the artwork's surface when seen in person, which makes it sensual as well as thought provoking. In the end, it lends the work added emotionality—always a key to the best art." |
Paul Smart |
| "Wagner offers a cosmic perspective, creating luminous, alchemic views of the heavens. Wagner, like a lot of local painters, eschews the pretensions of more sophisticated national painting trends to explore her own private language—one that ultimately prizes sentiment and sensitivity over intellect and savvy." |
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D.K. Row |
| "Wagner relies on what she calls the “alchemy of chance” to help coax out the stories inherent in her materials, as if the act of painting connects her to some part of the collective unconscious. In her hands, the waxy translucent surface disperses an overall amber glow that gives each painting the look of a piece of the past." |
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Pat Boas, |
| “Wagner’s paintings as a whole are sparer. Allowing the spackled waxy colors to tell their own tale in short but expansive breaths. Their slightly milky, translucent layers of brushwork, smears and palette knife rakes gain an old-d-masterish quality in the encaustic that helps give these works the gravity of history paintings.” |
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Randy Gragg |