Elisabet Ney Museum

The Elisabet Ney Museum celebrates the life and work of Elisabet Ney, the iconoclastic German sculptor who moved to Austin, Texas in 1892. The museum is housed at the artist’s home and studio, “Formosa.”

This year the Ney is hosting “The Bathing of the Sphinx”, a new site-specific commission by artists Renee Lai and Rosa Nussbaum.

Lai lives and works in Austin, TX. Her work explores the idea of barriers and how they serve as a metaphor for many other things—private property, ownership, belonging, security, fear. Painted in a thin, translucent way, Lai’s barriers are minimally and elegantly constructed, letting the surface and a few marks carry much of the painting’s energy. Lai holds a MFA in Painting from the University of Texas at Austin, and a BA (hons) in Studio Art from Dartmouth College.

Nussbaum is a British/German visual artist who works at the intersection of print, performance and sculpture with an emphasis on interactivity and digital technologies. Her work explores issues of gender, immigration and mental health through personal storytelling. Her installations are often playful whilst addressing serious topics.

Lai and Nussbaum connected over their shared interest in the lived experience and representation of femininity in Texas.