Elise Engler

Biography

Elise Engler’s art consists of meticulous, highly pictorial drawings and paintings that capture and document the material world in its all its myriad details. Her work includes, among others series, Everything I Own (1997–98) and Tax-Onomies (2003–08). Her most recent project is Diary of a Radio Junkie: 1888 Days of Waking Up to the News, and her book, A Diary of the Plague Year: An Illustrated Chronicle of 2020, is forthcoming (Metropolitan, 2021).

Photo by Sue Brisk

See Work

ART / Summer 2021

Diary of a Radio Junkie

Illustrations by Elise Engler ,  Essay by Paul Reyes

The premise was simple: a daily visual diary of the news—specifically, the first story she heard when she turned on the radio each morning.

(LEFT): Day 1,197 (March 2, 2019). India ink, casein, gouache, watercolor, color pencil, graphite on paper, 6 x 5 ½ in. <i>Space X launches capsule bound for International Space Station, could show potential for commercial space travel.</i>; (RIGHT): Day 68 (Jan. 28, 2016). Watercolor, gouache, graphite, color pencil on paper, 6 x 5 ½ in. <i>Manhattan Federal Appeals Court rules Port Authority can kill migratory birds near airports.</i>