grid+flow
July 2025
Jackson Art Center, Washington DC
Artist Statement
Elizabeth Casqueiro is drawn to the quiet conversation between nature and buildings, and between these spaces and us: how we lean into each other, resist, dissolve, and leave behind traces of our exchange. Her work uses an expanded definition of painting to follow these points of contact, where spaces and meanings overlap, unravel, and remember.
Rooted in her background in architecture, shaped by the textures of her Portuguese heritage, and influenced by memories of a childhood steeped in history, flowers, and patterns, Casqueiro works through color, material, and symbol. These are the tools she uses to reflect upon the beauty, challenges and contradictions of life.
Context
The title “grid+flow” came to mind during one of my walks through the city in early 2025, at a time of increasing political and social unrest in America. It struck me that Pierre l’Enfant’s monumental capital city plan for Washington was imposed on a geography of tidal marshes and rivers which regularly bubble up into the streets, as unstoppable as the creative chaos of democracy.
As a former architect, I am attuned to the way cities and building carry the weight of memory, identity and emotion — silent witnesses to who we are and what we hope to become. I felt an urge to explore tension and duality through the grid and flow of Washington DC and its symbolic architecture, aware that — as posited in For Space — city and building are spaces always in process, containers of stories-so-far and spheres of dynamic multiplicity (Massey 2005).
In this site-specific response to the Jackson Art Center — a XIXth century former primary school building now home to 40 artists in the art of Washington — I weave film, sound and painting into a layered reflection on a polarized America, using highly symbolic iconic buildings as metaphor and inspiration. The exhibition comprises six double-sided painted fabric panels; Crossreapeat, a 5-minute film; and Citimusak, a collaborative soundscape.
Exhibition Brochure:
https://www.flipsnack.com/F9CBFFD6AED/gridflow-catalogue-6×10-pdf-hiytsq095e/full-view.html
Exhibition Webpage:
https://elizabethcasqueiro.com/exhibitions/gridflow
Documentation
Short Film Crossrepeat/Public Facing Outcome