A painter of abstract subjects in irregular monochromatic shapes, Jeff Elrod, born in Texas and living in New York, does artwork based on his skills with the computer, which he uses for his preliminary drawing and planning. He uses "a mouse as his pencil to produce scores of rapidly drafted variations on improvised themes." (Odom) Then, from this type of accumulation, he selects one or two designs to enlarge into acrylic on canvas paintings.

Sometimes for exhibition purposes, he brings empty canvases on which he projects computer images of future paintings---a combination that links the digital age to "Surrealism's automatic writing and Abstract Expressionism's spontaneous gesture in the imperturbably cool context of a computer's logic-bound system of representation. . . .The value in all this lies in Elrod's ability to communicate that an individual intelligence lives and plays behind the technology he employs." (Odom)

Elrod, whose birthplace was Irving, Texas, earned a B.F.A. degree from North Texas University. He has been an artist-in-residence at the Chinati Foundation of Marfa Texas, and in 1998, received a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award.

His work has been included in group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Palm Beach Institute for Contemporary Art, and the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art.


Sources include:

Michael Odom, "Jeff Elrod", ArtForum, September 2001
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_1_40/ai_78637336

http://www.paolocurti.com/elrod/elrod.htm