Crowd Study_037 Drawing

In his work, Elbel examines the perspective of the spectator in relationship to events of great tragedy in history. Tragedies that have molded and shaped the world we all come from and know. Elbel creates visual narratives concerned with investigating the relationship between individual identity and Jung’s idea of aesthetic archetypes and the collective conscience. Most of Elbel’s paintings weave layers of the technicolor spectrum and dark contrasting sepia-tones into photorealistic renderings of massive crowds, interrogation chambers, and armed bank robbers. There is a thread of dissonance that exists in everything he renders. Though the uniqueness of his style is directly linked to the filter Elbel uses to find his subjects, Elbel seeks to reveal the universal truth about the identity of an American culture entertained.