Elliot R. Engles (B. 1996, Memphis, TN) is a painter, writer, and multi-disciplinary artist based in Philadelphia. They earned their BFA in Studio Art from the University of Memphis and their MFA in Painting from Tyler School of Art and Architecture.

Increasingly, Engles finds themselves creating according to where the wind blows them – whether it be performing interpretive dances to opera songs while wearing a paper mache bull head, torturing and crucifying Barbie for her transgressions against feminism, or painting disembodied porn angels as they use the toilet. Regardless, the core themes of gendered embodiment, identity construction, and the permeability of the barrier between self, other, and environment, remain central to their work. 

Recently an interest in maritime history and its enduring legacy has led Engles to integrate the imagery of sailing ships, the high seas, and the homosocial environment of the eighteenth and nineteenth century mariners into their work.  Ships function as heterotopias – places in which the convictions of society become mixed up, contradictory, and transformed, offering us a window to understanding the trappings and structure of convention.