Reception: Friday, April 3, 5:30 - 7:30
Location: 129 West Palace Ave, Santa Fe NM 87501
On April 3, 2009, LewAllen Contemporary opens its Spring/Summer exhibition season with a show of painter Brad Ellis's new work entitled Pattern, Rhythm and Process. Employing a consistent, ordered approach to each painting, but varying his methods of applying and manipulating his chosen media of encaustic, oil, acrylic, and collage, Ellis creates endlessly absorbing and intriguing compositions enlivened by pattern, rhythm and unusual color.
Each painting begins with a collaged layer of found or created paper elements. Cut and mounted in a specific way, these collaged elements form the underlying pattern for each painting - imagery to which he reacts in his applications of other media; rhythm is provided by lively gestural marks employing the ancient, wax-based medium of encaustic as well as oil and acrylic paints; process is made evident in later stages of fusing, burning, melting and re-applying encaustic.
Though consistent in approach, his paintings are wonderfully varied. Ellis is continually seeking and experimenting with different paper products and other collage materials, the starting point for each composition. Furthermore, one of the great properties of encaustic is that it can be applied and treated in different ways to create a smooth, glass-like surface or a rough, textured one. Finally, his intuitive color choices and varied marks with the brush yield endless possibilities - from canvases that are quiet and meditative to ones that have the pizzaz or punch of a fireworks display.
Ellis reports, "I want to create a certain rhythm with my marks and brush strokes that make them 'pop' off the surface giving each piece a very layered, physical presence and establishing an energy all their own. The various color combinations are also very important in trying to achieve what I call 'the instant impact moment' when viewers are first subjected to the paintings." Ellis has also described an aim in some pieces to represent thought process - how humans receive, channel and communicate information.
His paintings with strong horizontal elements "attempt to capture that moment before thoughts become written or spoken...that period when ideas are still formulating and gaining momentum." In these paintings, the mystery of thought is represented by tantalizing glimpses of text in the underlying layers of collage.
In other paintings, he uses a grandly gestural, allover pattern of arcs and drips to convey freedom of expression and joyful exuberance.
Ellis receieved his BFA from the University of Tulsa and did graduate work at the University of Oklahoma. His art has been shown in solo and group shows across the country and is included in numerous corporate as well as private collections.
