Sue Taylor, “Elizabeth Malaska,” Art in America, April, 2018. (Exhibition Russo Lee Gallery, Portland, Oregon Feb 1 – March 31, 2018)
“In the six large paintings on view in Elizabeth Malaska’s exhibition (all works 2017), female nudes in strange interiors smoke, sleep, sob, or stare at smartphones. Shunning furniture, they sit, kneel, recline, or crawl on the floor. Most have cats, as witches have familiars. All appear to possess turbulent inner lives. Painfully distorted and conveying severe unease, the nudes arouse compassion, not desire, rebuking the art historical traditions from which they descend….”