Liz Ensz

LIZ ENSZ was born in Minnesota to a resourceful family of penny-savers, metal scrappers, and curators of cast-offs. She received her BFA in fiber from the Maryland Institute College of Art (2005), and her MFA in fiber and material studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2013).

Ensz has exhibited her textiles and sculpture nationwide, including Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer, MN; Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY; Roots and Culture Contemporary Art Center, Chicago, IL; Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA; The Sub-Mission, Chicago, IL; and Goucher College, Baltimore, MD. She has been awarded residencies at Salem Art Works, Salem, NY; Playa, Summer Lake, OR; LATITUDE, Chicago, IL; and Blue Mountain Center, Blue Mountain Lake, NY. Ensz has also been the recipient of the Creative Baltimore Fund Grant, the Clare Rosen and Samuel Edes Fellowship Semifinalist Prize, the Gilroy Roberts Fellowship for Engraving, and the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Travel Fellowship.

As an extension of her practice, she has worked collaboratively to create platforms for others as cofounder and codirector of The Visitor Center Artist Camp and Sustainable Practice Symposium, an artist residency in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and as a member of the Leadership Team for FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture. Working on the FORCE Leadership Team included coordinating a 2018 display of The Monument Quilt of the National Mall in Washington, DC. She is currently a lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the departments of sculpture and fiber and material studies.