After living most of her adult life as an artist in the Pacific Northwest, on a photography trip to Greenland in 2017 Elizabeth Bourne fell under the spell of the high arctic. A year later, Bourne packed seven suitcases, and moved to Longyearbyen, Svalbard to pursue her passion for the Arctic. Her primary goal has been documenting the effects of climate change and the industrial truth of this icy wilderness. In 2019 she was honored to receive the Vision Excellence Award from the Miami Photography Center during Art Basel Miami for best work in a series for Svalbard: Land without Borders. Her ongoing painting work, The Arctic Sonata, which is an exploration of climate change and mortality in the Arctic, has been exhibited in Norway and Scotland. In 2022 she was chosen as a finalist in the Mieter Award for Excellence in Photography, and her photo essay on Pyramadin was exhibited at Photo Is:rael International Photography Festival. In 2021, she became Director of the Spitsbergen Artists Center, which includes the only open call artist residency in the high Arctic. Bourne assists artists of all disciplines who are interested in working with climate change and Arctic issues to come for extended periods to experience the high Arctic, and to have the time and space to work on their projects. Bourne’s current projects include continuing to document her home of Longyearbyen and ways of depicting the tourist gaze and the challenge of place.
EXHIBITIONS:
2023 Glacial Narratives|Edinborough Science Festival
2023 Featured image: FRAMES digital magazine
2022 Featured artist: Landscape Photography magazine
2022 Photo Mural project, Seattle Washington USA
2022 Photo:Israel International Photography Festival, Tel Aviv
2022 Finalist Meitar award for Excellence in Photography
2022 Plymouth Art Center, UK | collaboration with Joanna Haskins
2022 Spitsbergen Artists Center | Three Svalbard Artists: Olaf Storø, Elizabeth Bourne, Stein Henningsen
2021 Taigh Chearsabagh Museum, Scotland | Drift Ice: Loss and Cahnge
2021 Galleri Hug, Paris | Another Look at Man-Altered Landscape group exhibition
2021 FotoWien Rethinking Landscape
2021 Galleri Svalbard, Norway | Arctic Symphony 2: Transformation
2021 Visual Artists Alliance, Houston group exhibition
2021 Featured artist: Royal Photographic Society magazine
2021 Featured artist: Frames Magazine
2021 Featured artist: Surrounds Magazine
2020 Galleri Svalbard, Norway | Arctic Symphony 1: Drift Ice, Loss and Change
2020 Blue Sky Gallery Portland, Oregon group exhibition
2020 City of Seattle Permanent collection
2020 Auburn Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2019 Vision Excellence Award for work in a series for “Svalbard, Land without borders” Miami Photography Center, Art Basel Miami
2019 Black Box Gallery, Portland OR, group exhibition
2019 Galleri Svalbard, Longyearbyen | Norway New Visions of the Arctic
2019 Blue Sky Gallery of Photography, Portland Oregon | The Red Zone: A Study of Longyearbyen, Svalbard
2018 Specto Art Space, Bridgewater, VA
2018 Camera USA 2018, Best of American Photography, Naples FL
2018 Black Box Gallery, Portland Oregon