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 and in many private collections. A solo exhibition at Westbeth will take place October 8-November 9, 2005.

Decker's 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. Whether zeroing in on the shifting fragments of salt marshes, lavender cloaked in snow, the linear intricacy of fishing nets, suggestive fruit or even graffiti, she loses herself in pure movement, color, shape and texture.

Decker was awarded a 2003 Camargo Foundation 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, the Ragdale Foundation, Fundacion Valparaiso, Altos de Chavon and Rochefort-en-Terre. At the latter’s Chateau Museum, her painting Yggdrasil was included in a 2003 exhibition and catalogue. She received an Abby Fund grant in 2001 for a mural painting workshop and subsequent exhibition at the National Academy of Design. 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); “Private Mythologies”, Westbeth (1999); “Beyond Appearances”, La Mama La Galleria (1997) and “The Male Nude: Women Regard Men”, Hudson Center (1986), NYC.