PSYCHIC GEOMETRY
New Paintings by Ellen Weider
On view : April 19 - May 28
Reception : Sat. April 23, 3 - 5pm
Ellen Weider, Exhibitionist, 16” x 20”, gouache, acrylic, and graphite on linen, 2021
About the artist:
Ellen Weider is a native New Yorker living in Manhattan. She holds an MFA from Pratt Institute, and a BA from Hunter College. Weider’s work is included in many collections including the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC; Rutgers Print Study Archive, Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ; and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Art Collection, NYC. Her catalog “E.W. Squared: Ellen Weider Drypoint Prints” is in the collection of the Widener Library, Harvard University. Recent shows: “Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love,” The Painting Center, NYC; “Rock, Wood, Paper Scissors,” Lockwood Gallery, Kingston, NY; “Ellen Weider: Art About Art,” Equity Gallery, NYC.
Ellen Weider / Artist’s Statement
My images float in an undefined, ambiguous space. Some suggest houses, buildings, rooms and other architectural, or geometric structures. There are no inhabitants, but the structures themselves sometimes evoke human presence and human interactions, and can also be seen as metaphors for internal states of being. Other works employ organic or geometric forms that create a similar effect. The ethereal settings of my images and the coalition of colors within evoke a sense of positive energy and hopefulness. My paintings explore issues of isolation and connection; whether they are interpreted as pure abstractions or as self contained narratives, an ironic humor with a meditative, existential, transcendental bent informs them.
Dream House, 16” x 20”, gouache, acrylic, and graphite on linen, 2021
Compartmentalize, 16” x 20”, acrylic and graphite on linen, 2021
Curator’s Interview, April 2022
-What is your background? How did you come to be an artist?
I began drawing and painting in very early childhood. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t doing so. I kept at it, so I guess that’s how I came to be an artist.
My family was supportive and I was provided with art supplies from the beginning. We went to museums and I took classes at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art. In elementary school I was awarded a scholarship to Saturday art classes at Pratt Institute.
I kept working, and I was accepted to the High School of Music and Art in New York City. I went on to Hunter College where my focus was studio art and art history. I then returned to Pratt, this time for my MFA!
I continued my art practice after graduating from Pratt and soon after started showing my work in different venues in New York and environs.
-While your work on display at Corners Gallery is acrylic paint and graphite, some of your older work is in the drypoint technique. Do you enjoy exploring different mediums?
I was primarily a painter for a long time, though I had done some printmaking also. I returned to printmaking at one point when I lacked studio space, and decided to make drypoint prints on copper plates, which I could create anywhere, collaborating with a master printer in her studio to print the work together. My prints were informed by my painting practice, and there are aspects of my print work that have carried over into my newer paintings. (Continued below…)
Dream in Pink and Blue, 16” x 20”, gouache, acrylic, and graphite on linen, 2020
Stream of Consciousness, 11” x 14”, gouache, acrylic, and graphite on linen, 2020
- Can you speak about the conscious decision to draw and paint seemingly simple, flat shapes, as opposed to rendering them in a more three dimensional manner?
Painting in a reductive style has been a conscious decision. And I do often use flat shapes. But some of my work incorporates shapes and structures that are depicted in three dimensions, and I incorporate perspective in many compositions.
-Would you consider your work as contemporary Cubist, in the tradition of Picasso and Braque?
I don’t think of my work as contemporary cubism or a derivative of any particular art movement. But there are inevitable influences from a lifetime of purposeful exposure to art. Some of the hashtags I use in my Instagram posts that point to aspects of my work may be informative: geometric abstraction, reductive art, minimal art, architectural art, imagined architecture, psychological art, contemporary color, meditative art, transcendental art, metaphysical art, contemporary drawing, eccentric abstraction. I think of my work as a conglomoration of things I’ve experienced, both visual and nonvisual. (Continued below..)
Memoir, 16” x 20”, gouache, acrylic, and graphite on linen, 2021
Facade, 16” x 20”, gouache, acrylic, and graphite on linen, 2019
-Who are you excited about and influenced by right now, artists or otherwise?
I’m excited about having more time to paint, and traveling around to attend shows I’m part of. I’m also excited about getting to museums outside New York during these travels. Some longstanding favorites from the art world are Giotto, Paul Klee, Bill Traylor, Louise Bourgeois, Robert Mangold, Helen Frankenthaler, Japanese prints. (Continued below..)
Sixth Sense, 16” x 20”, gouache, acrylic, and graphite on linen, 2021
-The titles of your works often refer to states of being. Do you practice meditation?
The titles of my work do sometimes refer to a state of being. I don’t have a meditation practice, but
I sometimes enjoy a state of mind that may be similar to that when I’m drawing or painting.
-What is next on your exhibition calendar?
My next exhibition is a solo at the Center for Visual Research at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, November 2022.
I’m included in BAU18, A Container of Contemporary Culture, which is an artists box that contains original multiples from international artists, 30 from New York and 30 from Europe. Produced and distributed by the Cultural Association BAU of Viareggio Italy since 2004, it will be distributed soon.
Pink Prophecy, 16” x 20”, acrylic and graphite on linen, 2021
Made in May, 16” x 20”, gouache, acrylic, and graphite on linen, 2021
Partial Recall, 16” x 20”, acrylic and graphite on linen, 2020
Frontal, 16” x 20”, acrylic and graphite on linen, 2021
Perchance to Dream, 16” x 20”, acrylic and graphite on linen, 2021
ELLEN WEIDER / CV
EDUCATION:
Pratt Institute, MFA
Hunter College, BA
COLLECTIONS:
Harvard University, Widener Library, Cambridge, MA, E.W. Squared: Drypoint Prints (Catalogue)
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC
Georgetown University Library Art Collection, Booth Family Center for Special Collections, Washington, DC
New York Public Library Print Collection, New York, NY
Free Library of Philadelphia Print Collection, Philadelphia, PA
Newark Public Library Print Collection, Newark, NJ
HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY
Rutgers Print Study Archive at the Zimmerili Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Art Collection, New York, NY
SELECTED SOLO SHOWS
Ellen Weider: Visual Vocabulary, Portable Museum Project www.portablemuseumproject.com, 2020
Artist Spotted: Ellen Weider Artist Interview, @risingwoman.creative, 2020
Curated Studio Visits, @deannaevansprojects; “Artist Equity Spring Flash,” artsy.net, 2020
E.W. Squared: Ellen Weider Drypoint Prints, Manhattan Graphics Center, New York, NY, May, 2018 (Catalog)
Ellen Weider, Large Drypoints. K. Caraccio Printing Studio and Gallery, New York, NY, 2016
Ellen Weider Recent Drypoints, Manhattan Graphics Center, New York, NY, 2015
Ellen Weider, Chautauqua Art Association Galleries, Chautauqua, NY, 1994
Ellen Weider Prints, Books and Company, New York, NY, 1993
Ellen Weider Soft-Ground Etchings and Paintings, Thomsen Gallery, Tappan, NY, 1990
Ellen Weider Paintings and Prints, A.I.R Gallery, New York, NY, 1988
Ellen Weider: Paintings, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, New York, NY, 1987
Ellen Weider: Paintings and Works on Paper, Condeso/Lawler Gallery, New York, NY, 1986
Ellen Weider: Paintings, Ramapo College, Mahwah, NJ, 1984
Ellen Weider: Paintings and Workings on Paper, Condeso/Lawler Gallery, New York, NY 1984
Ellen Weider: Paintings and Works on Paper, Walt Whitman Center for the Arts and Humanities,
Camden, NJ, 1983
Ellen Weider: Paintings, Just Above Midtown/Downtown Gallery, New York, NY, 1982
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
Mana Contemporary, Chicago, IL, @manacontemproary, @fluffycrimes, 2021
Heat Wave, Dodomu Gallery, @dodomugallery, www.dodomugallery.com, 2021
Fu-tur-olo-gy, Ely Center of Contemporary Art. Exhibition online and projected on-site, 2021
6 x 9, Equity Gallery, New York, NY, 2021
Under A Very Big Sky, David Schell, https://www.thesemi-finalist.com/artist-interviews/the-semi-finalist-is-under-a-very-big-sky, 2021
Brenda Taylor Gallery on 1stDibs.com, 2021
Follow the Line, ArtPort Kingston Gallery, Kingston, NY, 2021
The Art of Water V, James May Gallery, on artsy.net , 2021
Rock, Wood, Paper, Scissors, curated by Alan Goolman, Lockwood Gallery, Kingston, NY, 2021
A Pattern Language, curated by Debbie Hesse and Shaunda Holloway, Perspectives Gallery/Ely Center of Contemporary Art at Whitney Center, Hamden, CT, 2020
New York Artists Equity Spring Flash on http://www.nyartistsequity.org/spring-flash and https://www.artsy.net/show/equity-gallery-the-new-york-artists-equity-spring-flash, 2020
NYC High Line-West Chelsea Open Studios at The Leo House NYC/Six Summit Gallery, New York, NY, 2020
Witchy: An Exhibition about Magic, Power, Spirituality, and Feminism, Ely Center of Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT, 2020
Fe*Mail*Art – A.I.R. 2020 Postcard Exhibition, A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2020
41st Annual Juried Art Exhibition, Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, NJ; Juried by Grace Graupe-Pillard, 2020
First Annual Hudson Valley MOCA Juried Exhibition, Hudson Valley Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Peekskill, NY; Juried by Legacy Russell, Associate Curator of Exhibitions, The Studio Museum of Harlem, 2019
Saturated: An Eye for Color, Juried by Michael Rook, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA,
Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY, 2019
Beneath the Surface: Intaglio Prints by MGC Members, Manhattan Graphics Center, New York, NY, 2019
The Print Effect: Small Works/Big Impact, Juried by Lothar Osterberg, Manhattan Graphics Center, New York, NY, 2018
The New Yorkers' Show, Clouds Art + Coffee Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2018
Big Impressions, Small Presses: The Small Independent Print Shop, Silvermine Guild Art Gallery, New Canaan, CT, 2017
3rd New York International Miniature Print Exhibition, Manhattan Graphics Center, New York, NY, 2017; Juried by Jennifer Farrell, Associate Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, Metropolitan Museum
of Art (Catalog)
2nd New York International Miniature Print Exhibition, Manhattan Graphics Center Gallery, New York, NY, 2016; juried by David Kiehl, Curator of Prints, Whitney Museum (Catalog)
2nd Hand Pulled Prints Exhibition, SITE: Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY, 2016
New York Miniature Print Exhibition, Manhattan Graphics Center Gallery, New York, NY, 2015; juried by Sarah Suzuki, Curator of Prints and Drawings, Museum of Modern Art, New York (Catalog)
New York Society of Etchers 15th Anniversary Exhibition, The National Arts Club Gallery, New York, NY, 2015; curated by Roberta Waddell, Curator Emeritus, New York Public Library Print Collection,
Off the Press, 440 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2015; curated by Kathy Caraccio and Roni Horn
High Line Impressions, Manhattan Graphics Center Gallery, New York, NY, 2015
XXX, An Exhibition about Erotica, Manhattan Graphics Center Gallery, New York, NY, 2015; curated by Doug Collins, Bob Shore, and Richard Turnbull
And So it Grows, Manhattan Graphics Center Gallery, New York, NY, 2015; curated by Ruth Moscowitz
Geometeers Unite, Manhattan Graphics Center Gallery, New York, NY, 2104; curated by Richard Turnbull
The Red and the Black, Manhattan Graphics Center Gallery, New York, NY, 2014; curated by Richard Turnbull
Text Message II, Manhattan Graphics Center Gallery, New York, NY, 2013; curated by Richard Turnbull
The 17th Mini Print International Exhibit, Ink Shop Printmaking Center, Ithaca, NY, 2012; juried by Minna Resnick and Andrea Inselmann
The 34th Irene Leache Memorial Exhibition, The Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, 1998
Artists of Manhattan Graphics Center, Krasdale Gallery, Bronx, NY, 1998; curated by Sigmund Balka
Printwork ’97, National Juried Printmaking Exhibition, Barrett House Galleries, Dutchess County Art Association, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1997; curated by Roberta Waddell, Curator of Prints, New York Public Library
Maximum Capacity: Art Initiatives Salon ’95, Tribeca 148 Gallery, New York, NY, 1995; curated by Leo Castelli Gallery, John Weber Gallery, June Kelly, and others
1988 Works on Paper National Juried Exhibition, MUSE Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 1998; juried by John Ittman, Curator of Prints, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Group Show, Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ, 1998
The Imaginary City, Manhattan Graphics Center Gallery, New York, NY, 1997
Twisted Reminiscence, Art Initiatives, New York, NY 1996
A Grand Affair, Art Initiatives, Tribeca 148 Gallery, New York NY, 1995
Art into Architecture, New York Law School, New York, NY, 1994; curated by Mary Judge (Catalog)
Signs, Codes, and Alphabets, Tribeca 148 Gallery, New York, NY, 1994; curated by Gilbert Oh
Printmaking Invitational, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, 1993
Black + White, Renee Fotouhi Fine Art, East Hampton, NY, 1993
Relics, East Hampton Center for Contemporary Art, East Hampton, NY, 1993
The Book as Object, the Book as Subject, HarperCollins Publishers Exhibition Space, New York, NY 1993
Dark Thoughts: Black Paintings, Pratt Manhattan Center Gallery, New York, NY, 1991; curated by Ellen Schwartz
Contemporary Still Life, East Hampton Center for Contemporary Art, East Hampton, NY, 1990
Invitational, A.I.R. Gallery, New York, NY, 1988
Prints and Paintings, Emerging Women Artists Series, A.I.R. Gallery, New York, NY, 1988
Contemporary Art: Ancient Inspirations, Stux Gallery, Boston, MA, 1987
Invitational, A.I.R. Gallery, New York, NY, 1985
A SoHo Summer Sampler, Ramapo College, Mahwah, NJ, 1985
Whimsy, Westminster College Gallery, New Wilmington, PA, 1985
Gallery Artists, Condeso Lawler Gallery, New York, NY, 1984
Reverse Impressions, Department of Cultural Affairs, Arsenal Gallery, NY, 1984
Four New York Painters, Marist College Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1984
Painting Invitational, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, 1984
25th Annual Invitational, A Survey of Contemporary Art, YM-YWHA, Union, NJ, 1984
Gallery Artists, Condeso/Lawler Gallery, New York, NY, 1983
Invitational, Bertha Urdang Gallery, New York, NY, 1983
3 Painters, Gallery 411/412, New York, NY, 1983
Donnell Library, New York, NY, 1982
Drawing Invitational, Condeso/Lawler Gallery, New York, NY, 1982
Black & White Show, Public Image Gallery, New York, NY, 1982
Invitational, 55 Mercer Gallery, New York, NY, 1981
Turnabout, Just Above Midtown/Downtown Gallery, New York, NY, 1981
Private Myth, Communal Knowledge, Rathbone Gallery, Junior College of Albany/Russell Sage College, Albany, New York, NY, circa 1980