Wiggle Cortado Cup 2025 Wheel Thrown Stoneware, Wiggle Pulled Handle, Slip Trailed Underglazes 4' x 4'' x 3''
Eli Pillaert (b. 1998) is a Southern intermedia artist whose practice balances large-scale public installations with a dynamic studio practice. Working across painting, textiles, and ceramics, her material play is foundational. Pillaert’s developed body of work centers on massive, 6×8 ft oil paintings: highly immersive, chaotic crowd scenes that capture the energy of parades, revelry, and collective ritual. Pillaert’s public projects transform urban infrastructure through community collaboration. Her 4,500-square-foot mural at the Glass Half Full recycling facility was featured in The New York Times, and she recently led the 46,000-square-foot Earhart Food Truck Plaza Mural for the 2025 Super Bowl. This extensive public work is shaped by her unique professional background, which includes installing site specific mosaics with Mosaika Art and Design Studios and working as a Mardi Gras float painter for the historic Royal Artists in New Orleans. When she isn't focused on painting or installation work, ceramics is the medium which offers a grounding reprise within her practice. Her recent solo exhibition, In Praise of Folly, at Art Conscious Gallery (New Orleans), explored ritual and release. Pillaert’s work has also been exhibited at the Amarillo Museum of Art, the R.W. Norton Art Gallery, the SLU Contemporary Art Gallery, and the Tulane Small Center. Pillaert earned her BFA from Tulane University in 2020. At its core, her practice is driven by the belief that creation has a vital capacity to foster joy, belonging, and change in the modern world.
