Hovering between Tiepolo’s skies decoring old interiors in Venice and the vibrant light of the Caribbean Sea waves, between Mittel-European culture and emotional abstract art: the colours are symbols, representing emotions in space.
This is a short introduction of Liz Milan’s artworks. The emotional element in her paintings should be emphasised from the very beginning. Striving to create contemporary works of art capable of expressing the deep meaning of life, while overcoming the hectic pace that modern society imposes on us, Liz Milan adopts a fusion of ancient and modern art.
She blends age-old techniques, such as gilding, pigments and varnish, with bright acrylic colours for abstract painting. She employs unusual materials, including pieces of glass, stones, sands, collages, plastic objects, gold and silver foil. This technique gives a three-dimensional perception to her vivid paintings, where all shades of blue are predominant: deep, rich hues, bright cobalt and fascinating turquoise are applied as pigments and fixed on canvas.
She loves the sea and its elements. In the last few years she has been active in promoting awareness for an eco-friendly lifestyle, especially on marine environment respect. The collection of shells, corals, unusual and curious objects from her travels, a sort of Wunderkammer, is her source of inspiration.
Like Renaissance artists, she is versatile and connects painting, installation, restoration and history of art in her work. Most of her paintings feature a reference to underwater life and its inner harmony. It is a reworking of the changing forms of the water element, she recreates shapes and lights in her own unique style.
The daughter of a well-known Friulian contemporary sculptor, Liz started out in her family’s workshop. She took a degree in History of Art at the University of Udine with a dissertation on Alice Dreossi, the first woman to attend the Academy of Art in Venice in the 20th century. Venice has been a main feature in the life of the artist, who then graduated from Venice’s International Art University to become an art restorer, specialized in ancient and polychromatic paintings and gilded full-relief sculptures.
She has worked side by side with her father Roberto to restore the wood carvings in the Cathedral of Udine, antique wood furniture at the Monte di Pietà in Udine as well as several public and private art collections. In particular, she restored paintings at the contemporary art museum Casa Cavazzini in Udine, and discovered the artists’ signatures on two large paintings from the 17th century: Gregorio Lazzarini, Tiepolo’s teacher, and G.B. Bissoni.
She also works as an art guide in north-east of Italy. Her wish is to let people discover and understand the history and art of her home region and of nearby Venice.
She is very active in protecting the sea from pollution and in 2019 she became snorkeling tour guide at WWF Marine Protected Area in Miramare, Trieste (Italy). Her intention is to raise people awareness of marine pollution through making large installations and works of art.
Since 2008 she has worked with art galleries in the US to promote her father’s artworks. She worked in art galleries in Miami FL, Laguna Beach CA, Denver CO, Aspen CO and Dallas TX.
She exhibited her works of art at: Embassy Caffè, Cortina d’Ampezzo (Italy), winter 2016-17; Portopiccolo (TS-Italy), summer 2017; Swag Art Gallery, Dallas (TX), summer 2017, Coconut Grove Art Gallery & Interiors, Miami (FL) 2017-20, Fincantieri Cruise ship, Monfalcone (Italy) 2018-20.
