Elisa Decker majored in painting at the Maryland Institute of Art, receiving a B.F.A., summa cum laude. She has exhibited extensively since 1975 and has work in the permanent collections of Pfizer Inc., NYC; International Art Studio, Valievo, Serbia; Altos de Chavon, Dominican Republic; Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado and in many private collections. Her paintings, drawings, and pastels hint at the ever-present possibility of rebirth. Swirling roots and limbs, a visceral landscape of weathered forms resembling bone and sinew, undulate in a shimmering dance revealing spectral, fairy-like shapes of the imagination. Though anchored in reality, their metaphysical quality invites the viewer to commune with the numinous in nature.

As a photographer, Decker continues to see the world through the eyes of a painter and celebrates the act of finding her subjects by chance. Whether zeroing in on the shifting fragments of salt marshes, lavender cloaked in snow, the linear intricacy of fishing nets or suggestive fruit, she loses herself in pure movement, color, shape and texture. An ongoing series explores readymade abstractions on faded walls, sidewalks, rusted metal, torn billboards, graffiti and construction sites. Eroded by time and the elements, transformed by light, these paintings catch the artists eye and she slows down to capture what most often goes unnoticed.

Decker was awarded a 2003 Camargo Foundation photography grant and residency in Cassis France, which was followed by a solo exhibition at Pfizer in 2004. A partial list of other fellowships includes the MacDowell Colony, the Millay Colony, I-Park, Fundacion Valparaiso Altos de Chavon and Rochefort-en-Terre. Her painting, Yggdrasil, was included in a 2003 exhibition and catalogue at the Rochefort-en-Terre Chateau Museum. Decker received an Abby Fund grant in 2001 for a mural painting workshop and subsequent exhibition at the National Academy of Design, NYC. Previous mural commissions include the Carlton Arms Hotel, NYC and La Botanique de Saint Jacques Majeur, Brooklyn.

Also an independent curator and freelance editor, Decker has curated Diving into the Details, NURTUREart Gallery, Williamsburg Brooklyn (2004) and Diving II (2005), a benefit held at Spike Gallery in Chelsea; Private Mythologies, Westbeth Gallery (1999); Beyond Appearances La Mama La Galleria (1997) and The Male Nude: Women Regard Men, Hudson Center Galleries (1986, catalogue). She writes for Art in America.

A 30-year survey exhibition of Deckers paintings, drawings and photographs was on view October 8th through November 8th, 2005 at the Westbeth Gallery, NYC. A solo show of recent photographs was held at the Manhattan Borough President Gallery, March 2010. Decker is an exhibiting member of Professional Women Photographers.
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