I Thought I Would _________ By Now

Paintings by Elizabeth Bergeland

Curated by Dr. Morgan Joseph Hamilton & Kasia Bunofsky

Gallery 4
June 5 — November 29, 2026

Elizabeth Bergeland (b. 1983 in Wyoming/Colorado, USA) is a Philadelphia‑based painter whose visually rich work blends figurative realism with surreal or imagined spaces. Her symbolic and emotionally resonant paintings reflect deeply personal themes such as connection, doubt, and the passage of time.

Bergeland earned a BFA in Painting and Anthropology from the University of Colorado in 2006 and later relocated to Philadelphia, where she now works and lives with her husband and three children.

Her paintings often dramatize modern existential fears- feelings of being overwhelmed by productivity, digital demands, and the weight of womanhood and motherhood. A recurring narrative in her work involves sunburns as metaphorical markers of worry, and gestural imagery, like tagged chickens or reaching hands that underscore the tensions between connection and solitude.

Bergeland’s first solo exhibition, Quiet Boy, debuted at Hotbed Gallery in Philadelphia in 2022. She was spotlighted in the 2024 edition of the SPRING/BREAK Art Show, presented her 2025 solo exhibition While You Were Sleeping at Studio 105 at Ray, and will mount her first museum solo exhibition in 2026 at the Delaware Contemporary Art Museum. Her work has also been featured in publications such as Smithsonian Magazine, Create Magazine, Philadelphia Magazine, Friend of the Artist, 1st Look TV, Root Quarterly, and The Visionary Projects.

She is also an acclaimed illustrator of children’s books, having illustrated Being Edie is Hard Today (2019) and The Great Whipplethorp Bug Collection (2021). The latter was awarded a Kirkus Star, received an NPR review, and was listed among Smithsonian Magazine’s “10 Best Children’s Books of 2021.” Her illustrations are part of the Society of Illustrators Museum’s permanent collection.