ARTIST STATEMENT
I am interested in close looking, and examining how parts come together to create a whole. Through my painting and drawing practice, I explore macro and micro relationships, including patterns and their inconsistencies in complex arrangements. I draw imagery from a wide range of source material—such as the view from a hotel room or moving car, collected objects and photographs—and use varying degrees of abstraction to suggest fleeting impressions from observation and from memory. I exhibit my encaustic paintings in large grids organized with the intention of creating unexpected connections between visual records of places I’ve inhabited in the near and distant past. This practice gestures to the overabundance of visual stimuli that we daily sift through and assign meaning to in order to form a worldview. My work is especially influenced by textiles; I often take cues from the design, pattern, and texture of fabric both when composing my paintings and when arranging grid installations.
BIO
Barbara Ellmann was born in Michigan and lives in New York, where she works as an educator at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, and Lincoln Center Education. She has been selected for residencies at Yaddo, the Hermitage Artist Retreat, and Haslla Art World Museum in Gangneung, South Korea. She has also produced public works for the Van Siclen Avenue subway station in Brooklyn, a bus shelter in Summit, NJ, and The Cambria Heights Branch Library in Queens. Ellmann’s work is in the collections of Peter Norton; Leonard Nimoy; NYU Langone Medical Center; the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University; the Peter J. Sharp Foundation; the Four Seasons Hotel and Resort, in Marrakech, Morocco; the Haslla Art World Museum, Gangneung-Si, South Korea; and the United States Embassy in Kampala, Uganda. Her traveling exhibition AN OPEN BOOK has been shown in Kalamazoo, Michigan and in Palm Desert, California. Ellmann also co-founded the New York Artists Circle and served as Director of the group from 1996-2015.
CV
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019 SO HERE SO THERE, Hampden Gallery, UMass Amherst, MA
2016 AN OPEN BOOK 2, Marks Art Center Gallery, Palm Springs, CA
2014 AN OPEN BOOK, Richmond Center Gallery, Kalamazoo, MI
2011 GAME BOARDS, Haslla Art World Museum, Jeongdongjin, Gang-Neung Si, South Korea
2010 WHAT I SAW: Paintings from the Hermitage, Gulf Coast, Florida, Tomasulo Gallery, Union County College, Cranford, NJ
2010 FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND OTHER ABSTRACTIONS, Ruth S. Harley University Gallery at Adelphi University, Garden City, NY
2010 FOREIGN AFFAIRS, The Gallery at R&F, Kingston, NY
2002 Game Boards, 80 Washington Square East, NYC, NY
1997 Game Boards, The Gallery at R&F, Kingston, NY
1992 New Horse Work, Winkler Galleries, Sutter Creek, CA
1986 Horses, Elan Gallery, Bismarck, ND
1982 Hanky Collages and Altar Constructions, Mythology, NYC, NY
1980 Two Cows, Harriman College, Harriman, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 OUAGADOUGOU 2021, U.S. Embassy in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; part of Art in Embassies Program, U.S. Department of State
2019 A Universal Feeling, part of Reveal/Conceal at Chehalem Cultural Center, Newberg, OR
2012 Super Saturated: Pigment and Pattern, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn, NY
2012 Textility, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit, NJ
2011 Encaustic with a Textile Sensibility, Kimball Art Center, Park City, UT
2010 LIC Grid, Acumen Capital Partners, Long Island City, NY
2007 Art Bars, Ithaca Fine Chocolate, Ithaca, NY
2006 Fragments, Water Street Gallery, Saugatuck, MI
2005 Wax: Encaustic Techniques in Contemporary Art, Brush Art Gallery, Lowell, MA
2005 Color and Form, Water Street Gallery, Saugatuck, MI
2005 Intimate Abstraction, Valencia Community College, Orlando, FL
2004 Drawn to the Present, Pace University Gallery, Pleasantville, NY
2004 Pattern Into Pattern, New York Law School, NYC, NY
2003 Surface, Matter, & Artifice, Dutchess Community College Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY
2002 4 Square, Gallery Korea, NYC, NY
2002 Print 2002, 354 Exhibitions, Brooklyn, NY
2001 Over Times Squared, Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC, NY
2001 Encaustic, Encaustic…, Melanee Cooper Gallery, Chicago, IL
2000 Contemporary Mandalas, The Discovery Museum, Bridgeport, CT
2000 New Artists, Lead Gallery, Seattle, WA
1999 Encaustic Works 1999, Watermark/Cargo Gallery, Kingston, NY
1999 Game Show, The Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA
1999 Summer Exhibition, The Painting Center, NYC, NY
1999 Waxing Poetic: Encaustic Art in America, The Montclair Art Museum and traveling to Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN
1999 Cross Purposes, Korn Gallery, Drew University, Madison, NJ
1998 Art as Spectacle, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY
1998 Pet Shop, Nicholas Davies Gallery, NYC, NY
1997 Contemporary Visions, University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT
1993 A-Z, 0-9, ES Vandam, NYC, NY
1991 Faith Nightingale Gallery, San Diego, CA
1991 Winkler Galleries, Sutter Creek, CA
1990 Cowboy Bob, Winkler Galleries, Sutter Creek, CA
1990 Faith Nightingale Gallery, San Diego, CA
1987 Santa Fe Institute of Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
1987 Hudson Gallery, NYC, NY
1987 Animals ‘R Us, Kraine Club Gallery, NYC, NY
1986 Artist Books Invitational, Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
1984 Image Pilgrimage, The Court Gallery, NYC, NY
1982 Mixed Bag, Alternative Museum, NYC, NY
1981 Re: Pages, New England for the Arts Touring Exhibition, RI, MA, CT, NH
1980 10 Downtown, NYC, NY
PUBLIC ART
2006 THE VIEW FROM HERE, 7 faceted glass windscreens commissioned by the NYC MTA’s Arts For Transit Program for the elevated Van Siclen Avenue Station on the Jamaica Line in Brooklyn, NY. Fabricated by Willet Hauser Architectural Glass Installed 2007.
2004 WHILE WAITING, Two faceted glass windows 4’ x 4’ for a bus shelter in Summit, NJ. Commissioned by the City of Summit. Fabricated by Willet Hauser Architectural Glass. Installed March 2006.
2003 ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE, 55 encaustic paintings 10’x 48’ installed in the Cambria Heights Branch Library, Cambria Heights, NY. Commissioned by NYC’s Department of Cultural Affairs Percent For Art Program, The Queens Borough Public Library, and NYC’s Department of Design and Construction. Kostow Greenwood Architects. Installed April 2006.
AWARDS, LECTURES, PANELS, RESIDENCIES, VISITING ARTIST
2019 Panelist, “Personal Transformation Through Art,” UCAE Conference: Global Perspectives on Art and Education
2014 Exemplary Teaching Artist Award, NYU Forum on the Teaching Artist, New York, NY
2011 International Artist Symposium and Residency, Haslla Art World Museum, Jeongdongjin, Gang-Neung Si, South Korea
2010 Residency, The Hermitage Artist Retreat, Englewood, FL
2010 Visiting Artist, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY
2009 Visiting Artist, St. Johns University, Queens, NY
2008 Panelist, Percent for Art, Department of Cultural Affairs, New York, NY
2008 Visiting Artist, St. Johns University, Queens, NY
2008 Visiting Artist, R & F Handmade Paints, Kingston, NY
2007 Visiting Artist, St. Johns University, Queens, NY
2005 Slide Lecture, School of Visual Art, New York, NY
2004 Slide Lecture, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY
2004 Slide Lecture, School of Visual Art, New York, NY
1999 Gallery Talk, The Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA
1998 Juror’s Award – Thema Golden, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY
1986 Slide Lecture, Elan Gallery, Bismarck, ND
1983 Residency, Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY
TEACHING OF AESTHETIC EDUCATION
1980-present Lincoln Center Education Teaching Artist Faculty, including summer session training of teachers in aesthetic education, artist orientation and training of artists, and the structuring and teaching of units of study in over 200 partnership and focus schools.
1981-present Training of teaching artists in Mexico City, Mexico; Hong Kong, China; Seoul, South Korea; Singapore; Palm Desert and Berkeley, CA; Kalamazoo, MI; Sante Fe, NM; Aspen, CO; Lincoln, NE; Knoxville, Nashville, and Memphis, TN; Newark, DE. Consultancies in OK, LA, MI, IL, SC, NM, CA
1997-present Teaching Artist Faculty in the Higher Education Collaborative at Lincoln Center Education, working with professor partners in the school of education at Bank Street, CCNY, Lehman College, St Johns University, Queens College, Brooklyn College, Hunter College and Stern College
2000-present MoMA Lecturer and Workshop Facilitator, Family Programs
2015-present The Whitney Museum of American Art Lecturer and Workshop Facilitator, School and Family Programs
CORPORATE, PUBLIC, PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Acumen Capital Partners, LLC
Leonard Nimoy
United States Embassy, Kampala, Uganda
Peter J. Sharp Foundation
Centre Solutions, Bermuda
Judge Alan C. Marin
Banner Estrella Medical Center, AZ
Walter Scheuer
Peter Norton
Four Seasons Hotel and Resort, Marrakech, Morocco
Queens Borough Public Library
Haslla Art World Museum, South Korea
New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority
City of Summit, NJ
NYU Langone Medical Center
Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
EDUCATION
School of Visual Arts, 1980-84
University of Michigan, 1968-69
