Jeff Elrod

Jeff Elrod makes large-format abstract paintings concerned with the relationship between hand-painted and digitally-created mark-making. His practice is informed by the trajectory of late twentieth-century abstraction and the emergence of sophisticated software and print technology.

Jeff Elrod’s practice is rooted in the tradition of American twentieth-century abstraction. Early in his career, Elrod developed a method of making what he refers to as “frictionless drawings”:  gestural compositions that he creates in the virtual workspace with the use of a computer mouse and basic software. These renderings are then transferred onto canvas employing a combination of digital printing and manual application. Through this multifaceted process the original drawings are adapted and transformed.  Elrod was among the first artists robustly to explore the pairing of digital and conventional painting techniques in order to expand the language of the medium; his working method has evolved in tandem with changes in technology. Throughout his work, Elrod aims to depict a kind of “screen space” in order to examine the dichotomy between traditional painterly space and the virtual space of the computer.