Artist Focus: Liana Z. Weber

Liana Z. Weber is an Austrian-American artist who draws on her own lived experience to create large scale, colored pencil artworks. Her work playfully examine the contrasts of what it is to be a woman in contemporary Western society. Weber produces thought-provoking works of art that can be readily interpreted and appreciated by any individual, regardless of history or background. She believes art should be accessible to all, and for certain topical, divisive issues to move forward, everyone must be invited to the discussion.

Call Me Mother (Superior), colored pencil and ink on paper, 23½ x 16½"

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in art, with a focus on painting from the University of Nevada, Reno, Weber moved to her father’s hometown of Innsbruck, Austria, where she is an active member of both the national and regional visual artist associations, and a founding member of the “She’s a Rainbow Art Collective,” which aims to advance female creatives across Europe.

Devil’s Dolls May Care, colored pencil and ink on paper, 23½ x 16½"

In her ongoing SISTERHOOD and (HER)O series, Weber merges the mythical, religious and historic with popular cultural iconography to create drawings that replace the traditional use of female subjectivity with unapologetically irreverent female figures. In each series (respectively), she is reimagining the narrative of a pious woman of God as a self-assured, self-sufficient woman navigating a primarily patriarchal system; and the allegorical willful woman as the all powerful hero of her own story.

Weber was named one of Create Magazine’s 2022 “Top 10 Artists to Look Out For,” and in 2024, was awarded Best in Show at the Reno Tahoe International Art Show (RTIA) for the second year in a row. Weber’s work is currently on view at No. 731 in Reno, Nevada, and she will be a returning artist at the 2025 RTIA Showin September. —