Sharon Ellis: The Four Elements

Solo exhibition

Artemis · Greenberg Van Doren · Gallery is pleased to present the New York solo debut of Los Angeles painter Sharon Ellis. The show is on view May 21 through June 27, and will feature four paintings on canvas. Ellis’ work was the subject of the recent traveling survey Evocations, which originated at the Long Beach Art Musuem, CA. Her work was also included in the recent group exhibition ‘L.A. Post Cool’ at the San Jose Museum of Art.

For this exhibition, Ellis has produced vibrant landscape paintings based on the four elements: air, water, earth, and fire. Her meticulous technique in alkyd allows her to produce only two or three paintings a year. On the occasion of Ellis’ recent survey, Christopher Miles has written:

Visionary is a tough word, but in its finest connotation, the word also suggests a capacity for redefining, even visually recreating the world at will, perceiving it in a manner that is perhaps more poetic than literal. In this sense, visionary is the word most apt for describing the sensibility Ellis brings to her images, which seem to have their own internal illumination. Trees and flowers line up to form a cathedral and stars converge to offer light shows on a cosmic scale, following in a tradition of paintings that try to address mysteries both internal and external, terrestrial and heavenly. Particularly amazing is the extent to which Ellis works within a web of traditions many consider well-worn territory, yet honors these traditions and expands and redefines them at every turn, even when working with themes – the times of the day, the seasons, the elements – that many consider cliche. Ellis says she enjoys the challenge of working with such themes, trying to coax fresh relevance and resonance from them. (Flaunt Magazine, March 2003)

Sharon Ellis was born 1955 in Great Lakes, IL, and lives and works in Los Angeles. She has exhibited at Christopher Grimes Gallery, LA; The Long Beach Museum of Art, CA; and The San Jose Museum of Art, CA, among others.