Using energetic gestural abstraction, Elise Ansel translates Old Master paintings into a contemporary pictorial language. She mines art historical imagery for colour and form, setting aside the narrative and pictorial elements of these paintings and thus creating room for new interpretations. Her works interrupt linear readings of Old Master paintings, repurposing and highlighting the unexpected. The representational content is transformed into a celebration of colour, gesture and the materiality of paint. In the process of reducing her inspirations to their most fundamental forms she retains their power and energy, replacing imagery with dynamic movement and dramatic colour and light.
‘Elise has assimilated the originals at an unprecedented level, an almost atomic level, a level in no way attainable without absolute mastery of form and materials, before exploding them onto the canvas as her own' Lara Santor
Her work deconstructs authorial agency in order to excavate and liberate meanings buried beneath the surface of the works from which her paintings spring. Old Master paintings were, for the most part, created by men for men. Abstraction allows her to interrupt this one-sided narrative and transform it into a sensually capacious, non-narrative form of visual communication, repurposing the patriarchal language and misogyny that dominates the history of art. Her retelling of these paintings is infused with the joy of interrupting history, replacing the past with raw expression and embracing multiple viewpoints.
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Celestial Slide I, 2022Oil on linen76cm x 61cm (30" x 24")
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Celestial Slide II, 2022Oil on linen76cm x 61cm (30" x 24")
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Fire Fangled Feathers III, 2022Oil on linen122cm x 152cm (48" x 60")
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Fire Fangled Feathers IV, 2022Oil on linen122cm x 152cm (48" x 60")
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Lucretia's Dance II, 2022Oil on linen152cm x 122cm (60" x 48")
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Obsidian Butterfly II, 2022Oil on linen152cm x 137cm (60" x 54")
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Sardanapalus III, 2022Oil on linen122cm x 152cm (48" x 60")
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Judith IX, 2021Oil on linen127cm x 102cm (50" x 40")
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Diana II, 2022oil on canvas102cm x 84cm (40" x 33")
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Fragment II, 2022oil on canvas102cm x 84cm (40" x 33")
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Fragment, 2022oil on canvas102cm x 102cm (40" x 40")
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Esther, 2022oil on canvas152cm x 122cm (60" x 40")
Born in New York City in 1961, Ansel studied at Brown University before gaining her MFA in Visual Art at the Southern Methodist University. Her works have been exhibited in group shows and solo exhibitions across the United States and the UK, and are held in public and private collections worldwide. Her first exhibition with Cadogan, ‘Drawn from History’, was held in 2013.
EDUCATION
1993 | MFA Visual Art Southern Methodist University |
1984 | BA Comparative Literature Brown University |
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 | 'Sea Change', Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, USA | |
2022 | Hamptons Fine Art Fair, Carol Corey Fine Art, Southampton, NY, USA | |
2021 | 'Polarity', Cadogan Gallery, London, UK | |
2020 | 'Palimpsest', David Klein Gallery, Detroit, Michigan, USA | |
2018 | 'Time Present', Danese/Corey, New York, USA |
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 |
'Re-Framing the Female Gaze: Women Artists and the New Historicism', Lehman College Art Gallery, New York, USA |
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2023 |
'Together & Apart, A Legacy of Abstraction', David Klein Gallery, Detroit, Michigan, USA |
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2023 |
'Through the Walls', Cadogan Gallery, London, UK |
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2021 |
'Reunion', Hollis-Taggart, Southport, Connecticut, USA |
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2019 |
'Summer Exhibition', Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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2019 | rePRESENTed PAST, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York |
COLLECTIONs
Museum of Contemporary Art Krków, MOCAK, Kraków, Poland
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, USA
Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
Eli Lilly Foundation, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Evansville Museum of Arts and Sciences, Evansville, Indiana, USA
Art Masters Solutions, London, UK
Ice, Miller, Denadio, and Ryan, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Cristina and Joe Craft, Chair, Dept. of Internal Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
Sopwell House, St. Albans, UK
Spring Island Trust, Spring Island, South Carolina, USA
Wilfrid Zogbaum, New York, New York, USA
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ELISE ANSEL | CREATIVE MAINE MAGAZINE | FEATURE
Stacey Kors , Creative Maine Magazine , January 6, 2019 -
ELISE ANSEL | INDEPENDENT IRELAND | FEATURE
Niall McMonagle , The Independent Ireland , December 24, 2018 -
ELISE ANSEL | BROOKLYN RAIL
Alfred Mac Adams, Brooklyn Rail, December 20, 2018 -
ELISE ANSEL | ARTNEWS | FEATURE
Alfred Mac Adam , ARTnews , March 9, 2017 -
ELISE ANSEL | METAL MAGAZINE SPAIN
Patricia Ramos , Metal Magazine Spain , November 15, 2016 -
ELISE ANSEL | HYPERALLERGIC
Carl Little, Hyperallergic, April 9, 2016 -
ELISE ANSEL | PORTLAND PRESS HERALD
Daniel Kany , Portland Press Herald , February 21, 2016 -
ELISE ANSEL | CANVAS SAATCHI ART
Canvas a blog by Saatchi Art, December 8, 2014 -
ELISE ANSEL | PASATIEMPO MAGAZINE
Michael Abatemarco , Pasatiempo Magazine by The New Mexican , August 23, 2013 -
ELISE ANSEL | THE MAINE MAG
The Maine Mag, December 9, 2010