DAVID ELLIS – AVAILABLE WORK
DAVID ELLIS
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BIOGRAPHY / CV
Born Raleigh, NC, 1971
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY
David Ellis is an artist born into a family immersed in music. In his youth Ellis had little patience with piano lessons or reading sheet music. Instead he absorbed everything on The Super Mix, a Saturday night radio program broadcast from the nearby Fort Bragg military base. Each week a new cassette tape of emerging New York hip-hop found its way into the life of a child growing up in a log house in North Carolina. By the time Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5 released The Message, Ellis was writing rhymes and banging out beats with his friends on the desks at school. Things have since become much louder.
Ellis’ work continues to interpret music and sound. His paintings are often recorded in a form of digital time-lapse animation Ellis calls motion painting. Like jazz, these works provide Ellis with an opportunity to combine ideas with collaborators or work solo within a form that promotes improvisation and spontaneity. For a recent commission the artist painted a truck from sunup to sundown over five consecutive days. Ellis often stages events when exhibiting his motion paintings, inviting musicians, performers, and sound artists to interpret the work live. His motion painting, Paint on Trucks in a World in Need of Love was recently exhibited at MoMA.
Ellis’ paintings are frequently improvised. He works directly on the walls of spaces that remain open to the public during installation and shares the making of the work with viewers. The experience is much like a band playing in front of a passing audience.
Ellis further explores sound with kinetic installations that produce analogue sequences in rhythm.SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2012Go west curated by Joshua Liner Gallery, at Mark Moore Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2011Mola Salsa, New Image Art, Los Angeles
2009Constant Flow, New Image Art, Los Angeles
Oxblood, Webb’s, Aukland
2008Hopewell, Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington
Dozens, Roebling Hall, New York
Country Club, Cincinnati
2006Dawn’s Early Light, Red Gallery, Savannah College of Artand Design, Savannah
Motion Paintings, Zoller Gallery, Penn State University,Philadelphia
Conversation, Rice University Gallery, Houston
2005Orchestrion, Jessica Murray Projects, New York
2004Boars Head/ Wars Head,Lump Gallery, Raleigh
Beat Box/ A Painting is a Drum, 222 Gallery, Philadelphia
2003Request Line, Agnes B Homme, New York
2002Like Motion of Water, Jessica Murray Projects, Brooklyn
David Ellis, Korn Gallery, Drew University, Madison
Paint on Trucks in a World in Need of Love
Roots Branches and Leaves, Gas/Dyezu Experiment, Tokyo
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS2012
Summer Group Exhibition, at Joshua Liner Gallery
2011PULSE Contemporary Art Fair with Joshua Liner Gallery, Miami, FL
Summer Group Exhibition, Joshua Liner Gallery, New York
2010Viva la Revolucion, Museum of contemporary Art, San Diego, CA
Moniker International Art Fair, Anoyomous Gallery, London
2009SCOPE Art Fair, Anonymous Gallery, Miami, FL
2008Inner/Outer Space, Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh
Tansformers, Corridor Gallery, Brooklyn
2003-2008, Publico, Cincinnati
2007Rubicon Sun:David Ellis and Dozen Green, Fifty24 SF Gallery, San Francisco
NADA Art Fair, Miami, (with Roebling Hall)
Zoo Art Fair, London, (with Roebling Hall)
Ensemble, Instituye of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
50,000 Beds, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield
Animated Painting, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego
Brodeo, New Image Art, Los Angeles
BMG Artists’ Annual’07′,Black Market Gallery, Los Angeles
Burning House (with Swoon and Faile), New Image Art, Los Angeles
Doodle Crush (collaborations with Kiku Yamaguchi),Lump Gallery, Raleigh, North Carolina
10 Curators (10th Anniversary),Colette, Paris
Music Show II, Publico and Shake it Records, Cincinnati
Graffiti Stories, MIAM (Musée des arts Modestes),Séte
Graffiti Stories, Abbaye d’Auberives, France
50,000 beds, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Conneticut
Elavator Mural Project (with Doze Green) 30 Bond Street,New York
2006Music Show,Publico, Cincinnati
Good & Thuggy, Lump Gallery, Raleigh
Salvage Assemble, Space Gallery, Portland
Live Scores, Monkeytown, Brooklyn
Motion Barn, South Eastern Center for Contemporary Art,Winston Salem
Castia, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan
Letter to the President, ResFest, International FilmFestival
2005Greater New York 2005, P.S 1/MoMA, Long Island City
GADGET: Mechanics and Motion in Contemporary Art, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati
Digital Cotton, Savannah Gallery, Savannah College of Art and Design
Urban Edge, SPAZIO P4, Milan
2004Paint on Trucks in a World in Need of Love, MoMA QNS, New York
Brainstormers Selected Films, AIGA Move Conference, New York
NADA Art Fair, Miami
2004 Studio Artists: 9X, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn
Psych-Opus, and B-Stormers Mural, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu
Motion Paintings, South Eastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston Salem
Ill Communication, Urbis Museum, Manchester
Grotto 2, Jessica Murray Projects, New York
Beautiful Losers, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati
Compost, Doze Green and David Ellis, Studio Number 1, Los Angeles
2003Unseen Messages, Transport Gallery, Los Angeles
Hive Mind Sound System, Lump Gallery/Projects, Raleigh
Smudge Good, CWC Gallery/Projects, Tokyo
NYC Now, Galerie Du Jour, Paris
Bazaar, Cuchifitos, New York
Coast to Coast, Punch Gallery, San Francisco
Letter to the President, Res Fest, international Film Festival
Apostrophe, Mori Museum, Tokyo
2002Live Paintings with John Ellis Quintet, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans
Art Nights, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan
Steetwise One, Apart, London
Grotto, Jessica Murray Projects, Brooklyn
Final Modification 001, Ex’Realm, Tokyo
Painting is Dead… Or Is It?, Lance Fung, New York
2001One Planet Under a Groove, Bronx Museum, Bronx
No Condition is Permanent, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn
San Francisco, California, Rappers Delight, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
The Art of Breaking, Downtown Arts Festival, New York
Clocktover Show, P.S 1, Clocktower Gallery, New York
Vox, Kent Gallery, New York
2000Cirk and Watching Paint Dry, Downtown Arts Festival, New York
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
2008
Marty Margulies – Miami, FL
2009
Saatchi Gallery – London, UK
SELECTED PUBLC PROJECTS
2006We People, The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative, Charlottesville
Hive Mound Sound System, Miss Rockaway Armada, New York
It’s Yours, Deitch Projects, Art Parade, New York
Su, Atlantic Avenue Artwalk, Brooklyn
2005Bound, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah
2003Altoids Sponsored Wall of Fame, Brooklyn
2002The Number 9, The Letter 0 and Zero, Sesame Street
Mother Mural, London
2000Mural and Gourd-Speaker Installation, BSSA, Osaka
1996Mural, Village Vanguard, New York
ONGOINGThe Spitune Juice Project, Walls and trucks throughout the greater New York
Barnstormers Barn Painting Project, Cameron
B-boy Floor Mat Roto-Releif and Video Project, Bronx
EDUCATION
1994 BFA, Cooper Union, New York, NY
© 2010 Anonymous Gallery.