Eliyahu Mirlis

Eliyahu Mirlis is an American painter. He was born in New Brunswick, in 1956. Being a neo-expressionist artist, Miris is one of the most popular contemporary painters on the international art scene. He now divides his time between New Jersey and Brazil.

After spending his childhood in New Brunswick, Mirlis went to New Jersey City study in New Jersey City University. He graduated from this university and obtained a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree with a major in Fine Arts and a minor in History of Arts.

Influenced by informal art and art brut, discovered during a trip to Europe, he had his first exhibition in the Montclair Art Museum in 1979.

Few month later, Mirlis undertakes a second trip to Europe and discovers important figures of what will become the free figuration movement, also called neo-expressionism, such as the painter De Kooning. In reaction to conceptual art which advocates a supremacy of the concept of the work over the work itself, these artists wish to return to the work of form, to figuration.

In 1980 Mirlis discovered the South American continent, making his first trip to Brazil and the Amazonian rainforest. He developed a new style, using mixed techniques, thanks to the multiple cultures he discovered. He particularly apprehends the use of new pigments. This period is very rich for his painting, he indeed made countless sketches and drawings, living a true artistic renaissance.

During the next years, Eliyahu Mirlis oriented definitively towards figurative painting, returning to classicism. In the space of a few years, this painter succeeded in carving out a prominent place on the contemporary world scene, exporting his work to the four corners of the world.

Classical painting, illustration, urban art ... Eliyahu Mirlis’s work moves between different fields, but always showing a great mastery of the technique and a very careful aesthetic. Passionate about his work, this New Jersey-based artist does not hide his concern about the impact of COVID-19 on the world of culture in general and art in particular. Despite this, he traces a halo of hope and he trusts in the survival capacity of artists: "Things are always happening in our heads, and sometimes a sheet of paper and a pen are enough to start something."

Eliyahu Mirlis likes to investigate, explore and experiment, which is why he considers himself more of an inventor than a painter. This restless attitude towards life and art has led him to create "complex hybrids" that build his own imaginary gestated and matured over decades. He started at the age of 11 or 12, like any child, painting some oil paintings, but gave up painting for a while. At 17 Eliyahu took up painting again and made a series of landscape watercolors that he sent to painting contests in New Brunswick. He won several national watercolor prizes competing with already established professionals.

His first public appearance in New York was in 1977 with a painting that was hyper-realistic in nature. Only a month earlier he had started studying Fine Arts. Years later, he had the opportunity to go to London.