“Half-and-Half” Painting

Born in Houston, Texas, Elisha Neville moved to Birmingham, Alabama around the age of 13. The transition was difficult as he was diagnosed with Dyslexia before the move so he funneled his emotions through sketches of characters to actualize his internal experience. He eventually got disconnected with the craft until the pandemic hit in 2019. That reopened the doors to his first passion in art, taking it as an opportunity to draw inspiration from all things around him. Elisha creates his art to provide a world where his characters can coexist and thrive. The same characters he developed as a coping mechanism when he was young and struggled in school are the very ones he uses in his work today. Each character has a backstory based on the emotion it portrays, and he uses them to highlight different struggles in the black community. His work intertwines surrealism, black expressionism, and pop art.