Elizabeth de Vaal was born in Rotterdam in 1950. She studied painting, printing and drawing at the Willem de Kooning Academie, later embarking on a postgraduate course at Ateliers (formerly Ateliers ’63). During her time there, she was able to evolve among a hand-picked crop of promising talents that would come to prominence in the 1970s.

As an artist, her natural curiosity has led her to develop a polymorphous oeuvre that is as surprising as the references from which it draws inspiration. De Vaal turns to atypical sources for inspiration, such as texts, diagrams and images, ideally originating from the unfamiliar environments she has encountered in her many trips and artist residencies. As a result, her work is versatile, volatile even.

Acknowledgments of her contributions to culture have come in the form of international exhibitions (in Egypt, Hungary, South Korea, Sweden and Indonesia) and awards (the Dutch Royal Grant for Painting), and through acting as an advisor for art institutions from 1984 to 2006. Her cultural role has also led to a teaching mission, with De Vaal holding lecturer and guest teacher positions in various artistic institutions both in her native country and abroad (Ohio State University in 1999; Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Pécs in 2004).

The artist lives and works in the Netherlands and Hungary.