Biography
Elise Tak (b. Voorburg, Netherlands 1957) studied at University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, garduating in English literature and linguistics (1975-81). She now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, USA. Since the early 1990s her work has been shown in leading galleries, museums and art institutes like Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, Frans Hals Museum/De Hallen, Museum Helmond (The Netherlands); Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art (USA); Musée de Luxembourg, Musée d'Art Moderne Contemporain Strasbourg, FRAC Poitou-Charentes, Le Consortium (France). Tak has undertaken several large-scale public art projects, commissioned by leading institutes like SKOR Foundation for Art and Public Space (Red Robbie: The Act Behind the Scenes, 2001-2003) and Stroom Den Haag (The Principal Head, 2003), both in The Netherlands. Her animation short Suicide Notes was produced in collaboration with the two-time Emmy-award winning composer Patricia Lee Stotter. Tak was the projection designer for the play Flashback, which ran in a New York City theatre in 2007. Her series of stills illustrating Gogol's The Nose originally was made for the short film Here's What I Like... Russian Literature. And Now I'll Tell You Why, directed by Abigail Zealy Bess and written and conceived by Amy Staats. In 2015 she was the programme director of Issyra Gallery in Hoboken, New Jersey.
