AMY ELLINGSON | LOOP
UNTITLED ART MIAMI BEACH

LOOP
by Amy Ellingson
Santa Fe, NM, November 2021

My work is an attempt to confront the enormity of contemporary virtual experience while asserting the humanness of painting. I design my work on the computer, and the translation from the ‘virtual’ to the ‘real’ is paramount. Physicality, labor, attention, and process are important, as is the transcendent manifestation of image into object, embodiment and presence.

The works are closely interrelated. Using ephemeral, computer-generated images exclusively as my source material, I employ a signature vernacular of marks that are predetermined through a process of digital manipulation. The resulting gestures are personal, yet neutral, created by formal decisions as interpreted by the algorithms of computer graphics programs. I use repetition and variation within a language of pure abstraction. I am interested in the experience of translating digital imagery into substantive objects via traditional, hands-on media and processes. The multiple manifestations of the data refer to art historical discourses on seriality, and to the repetition and omnipresence of digital information.

In computer programming, a loop is a sequence of instructions which is specified once and carried out multiple times, either until a desired condition is met or, perhaps, indefinitely. I often make groups of paintings that are nearly identical to each other, with just a few variations. Elements may be reversed, flipped, or rendered in different colors. Thus, each work is part of the group, but also a stand-alone entity, asserting its individual identity through a combination of sameness and difference, much in the way that differentiation is expressed through permutations in DNA or computer code. 

The six paintings that comprise LOOP incorporate visual density and complexity, interlocking and interconnected forms, a tenuous sense of order, and spatial fluctuation. The layers of the picture plane are somewhat conflated. In some works, the foreground recedes and the background advances. The palette, though harmonious throughout, allows each work to stake its claim. The LOOP paintings are based on procedural variation within a strict set of parameters. It is my hope that, through optical, chromatic and perceptual assertions and shifts, they encompass a wide range of mood and atmosphere, and express a sense of vast potentiality.

AMY ELLINGSON
Loop: Variation III, 2021
oil and encaustic on two panels
74 x 68 inches

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SELECTED EXHIBITIONS—solo

2021
Loop, Untitled Art Miami Beach, Eli Ridgway Gallery, Miami, FL
The Mountains are in Us, Eli Ridgway Gallery, Bozeman, MT

2020
Firmament, Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO

2018
Sweetbitter Beast, Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO

2016
Chopping Wood on the Astral Plane, Eli Ridgway | Contemporary Art, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA

2014
Field Theories, ProjeKcts by Projects/Shoichiro, Tokyo, Japan
Iterations & Assertions, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA 

2013
Recent Work, Miami Project, Eli Ridgway Gallery, Miami, FL 

2010
SUMMER FRIEZE, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA 

2008
Recursions, Charles Cowles Gallery, New York, NY

2006
Recent Work, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2004
Semper Augustus, Charles Cowles Gallery, New York, NY

2003
Ec/centric Compositions, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2002
Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, Fassbender/Stevens Gallery, Chicago, IL
Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, Frumkin/Duval Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

1999
Between Repetition and Insistence, jennjoygallery, San Francisco, CA

1997
A Hankering..., Gallery 16, San Francisco, CA

1994
Flora and Fauna, FOOD HOUSE, Santa Monica, CA

1992
The Princess and P., thesis exhibition, CalArts, Valencia, CA 

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS—group

2020
Alcoves 2020, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM
Inaugural Exhibition, Eli Ridgway Gallery, Bozeman, MT

2017
Open Ended: Painting and Sculpture Since 1900, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Unfamiliar Again: Contemporary Women Abstractionists, Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Spectral Hues, Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto, CA
Detritus, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
About Abstraction: Bay Area Women Painters, Bedford Gallery, Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, CA

2015
Resonate, Root Division, San Francisco, CA

2014
Women and Print, Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps College, Claremont, CA (catalogue)
Shift—Five Decades of Contemporary California Painting, Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA

2012
Her Elegant Universe, Gregory Kondos Gallery, Sacramento City College, Sacramento, CA

2011
One Thing Leads to Another: Seriality in Works on Paper, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
Driven to Abstraction, Von Lintel Gallery, New York, NY
New Editions: Amy Ellingson, Stefan Kirkeby and Inez Storer, Gallery 16, San Francisco, CA
Ucross Retrospective Exhibition, Ucross Foundation Art Gallery, Ucross WY 

2010
Out of Order: Geometric Systems in Contemporary Bay Area Art, Fine Arts Gallery, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA
Ucross: Twenty-Seven Years of Visual Arts Residencies, The Nicolaysen Art Museum, Casper, WY (catalogue) 

2009
Color and Construct: Amy Ellingson, Patsy Krebs, Bruce Robbins, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Art Institute Faculty & Alumni: A Thin Slice, Baer Ridgway Exhibitions, San Francisco, CA 
Art on Market Street: A Selection of Kiosk Posters from the San Francisco Arts Commission, Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, CA 

2008
Gallery 16 Fifteenth Anniversary Group Show: These Are The People In Your Neighborhood, Gallery 16, San Francisco, CA 

2007
Nineteen Going on Twenty: Recent Acquisitions from the Collection, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI

2005
Neo Mod: Recent Northern California Abstraction, Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA
Director’s Choice: Contemporary Art with Objects from Asia, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Twofold: Collaborations on Campus, Richard L. Nelson Gallery (Project Room), University of California, Davis
Ad Infinitum: The Aesthetics of Repetition II, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2004
Neo Mod: Recent Northern California Abstraction, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
The Big Spin: 2004 Faculty Exhibition, Walter & McBean Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA 

2003
Matter & Matrix, Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps College, Claremont, CA (catalogue)

2002
Bay Area Now 3, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA (catalogue)
A Chance Operation: 2002 Faculty Exhibition, Walter & McBean Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
The Group Show, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, San Diego, CA 

2001
The Necessary Beauty, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, San Diego, CA
ExtraOrdinary: 2001 Faculty Exhibition, Walter & McBean Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
KABOOM!, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA 
Calligraphic Legacy, Transamerica Pyramid, San Francisco, CA [climax], jennjoygallery, San Francisco, CA
Icon-O-Pop, Frumkin/Duval Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 

2000
Light Fantastic, Walter & McBean Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA Head Cheese, Ft. Haggis Gallery, San Francisco, CA
People as Material, California College of Arts and Crafts, San Francisco, CA 
backroom, jennjoygallery, San Francisco, CA 
Emotionally Annoyed, ESP, San Francisco, CA 

1999
Works by the Recipients of the 1999 Artadia Award to Visual Artists, Jernigan Wicker Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA 
jennjoygallery, San Francisco, CA 

1998
emerge: Gen Art SF’s Premier Exhibition, San Francisco, CA 

1996
New American Talent: The Twelfth Exhibition (Lisa Phillips, Juror), Austin Museum of Art at Laguna Gloria; Austin, TX (catalogue)

1995
Bloom, Cristinerose Gallery, New York, NY 

1994
FOOD HOUSE two year anniversary exhibition, Santa Monica, CA 

1993
Germinal Notations, FOOD HOUSE, Santa Monica, CA
Peculiar Paintings (Randy Sommer, Curator), Woodbury University; Burbank, CA
New American Talent: The Ninth Exhibition (Kerry Brougher, Juror), Austin Museum of Art at Laguna Gloria; Austin, TX 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Artner, Alan. “Amy Ellingson,” Chicago Tribune (May 17, 2002)

Baker, Kenneth. “Amy Ellingson at Haines,” San Francisco Chronicle (June 10, 2006)

_____________. “’Bay Area 3’ show peeks into artists’ inner worlds,” San Francisco Chronicle (October 30, 2002)

Barden, Lane. “Report from the FOOD HOUSE booth: the alternative space at ART/LA93,” Artweek (January 6, 1994) 

Berry, Colin. “Emotionally Annoyed,” San Francisco City Search (January 2000)

Bonetti, David. “‘KABOOM!’ is Summer Show to Beat,” San Francisco Chronicle (July 7, 2001)

Cash, Stephanie. “Report from San Franciso: Surviving and Thriving,” Art in America (November 2002)

Coleman, Sarah. “emerge,” San Francisco Bay Guardian (July 22, 1998)

_____________. “Emotionally Annoyed,” San Francisco Bay Guardian (February 2, 2000)

Cramer, Laura Jaye. “SFO Unveils Massive Mosaic as Part of Ongoing Public Art Project.” SF Weekly  (November 24, 2015)

Eich, Maureen. “Amy Ellingson, Between Repetition and Insistence,” NYArts Magazine (November 1999)

Gavish, Michal. “Amy Ellingson: Iterations & Assertions,” sfartnews.wordpress.com (July 8, 2014)

Hotchkiss, Sarah. “Art That Makes Missing Your Flight OK,” www.kqed.org (October 7, 2015)

Johnson, Ken. “Amy Ellingson: Semper Augustus,” (“The Listings”), The New York Times (December 24, 2004) 

Keats, Jonathon. “Double Vision: An Exhibition of New Diptychs Based on Work by Three Bay Area Artists,” San Francisco (February 2000)

_____________. “Designer Artwork,” San Francisco (February 2008)

Kee, Christina. “Driven to Abstraction, A Group Show at Von Lintel Gallery,” artcritical.com (July 28, 2011) 

Ruiz-Kim, Maritza. “The Loop of Abstraction: Amy Ellingson at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art,” prowaxjournal.com (July 17, 2014)

Kuspit, Donald. “Abstraction, Ecstasy, Technology: Amy Ellingson’s Paintings,” catalogue essay (2006)

Roth, Charlene. “Jac Chartier and Amy Ellingson at Frumkin/Duval Gallery,” Artweek (March 2002) 

Roth, David M. “Best of 2016,” squarecylinder.com (January 5, 2015) 

_____________. “Amy Ellingson: Chopping Wood on the Astral Plane,” squarecylinder.com (January 22, 2016)

_____________. “2014: The Year in Review,” squarecylinder.com (January 4, 2015)

_____________. “Amy Ellingson at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art,” squarecylinder.com (August 1, 2014) 

_____________. “One Thing Leads to Another at ICA,” squarecylinder.com (January 2012)

Scudder, Kirby. “San Jose ICA Brings in Innovative Artist Amy Ellingson,” santacruzsentinel.com (June 18, 2014)

Tabios, Eileen. “CLIMAX: A Group Exhibition As Taoist Poetry,” reviewwest.com (December 2002)

Tromble, Meredith. “Bay Area Now 3,” Stretcher.org, (November 2002)

Turner, Cherie Louise, “Airport Art Has Found An Ambitious Proponent in the San Francisco Arts Commission, Art Ltd. (Jan./Feb. 2016, Vol. 10, No. 1)

Turner, Mary Louise. “’Neo Mod’ at the Crocker Art Museum,” Artweek (March 2005)

van der Beek, Wim. “Amy Ellingson,” Kunstbeeld (March 2005)

Van Proyen, Mark. “Amy Ellingson at jennjoygallery,” Artweek, (February 1999)

_____________. “San Francisco e-mail: Michael McDowell; Amy Ellingson, Carrie Lederer,” Art issues., (January1999-February 2000)

_____________. “San Francisco e-mail: “Kaboom!” at Haines, etc.,” Art issues., (September/October 2001)

Welles, Elenore. “Amy Ellingson and Jac Chartier at Frumkin/Duval Gallery,” ArtSceneCal (January 2002)

Whiting, Sam. “Art Installations Sooth Delays at SFO,” San Francisco Chronicle (December 13, 2015) 

PUBLIC ART 

Sam Houston State University, College of Osteopathic Medicine Building, Conroe, Texas, 2020
26 x 22 feet and 26 x 4 feet mural made of ceramic mosaic, fabricated and installed by Mosaika Art & Design, Montreal.
Budget: $300,000.00

Untitled (Large Variation), San Francisco International Airport, Terminal 3, 2015
Commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission in 2010 and installed in July 2015.
Permanent installation. 10’ x 109’ mural made of ceramic mosaic, fabricated and installed by Mosaika Art & Design, Montreal.
Budget: $600,000.00

Multnomah County Central Courthouse Public Art Opportunity, Portland, OR, 2017 (Finalist)

San Diego International Airport Public Art Opportunity, Glass Wall Partition, 2017 (Finalist)

Market Street Art in Transit Program Kiosk Poster Series, San Francisco Arts Commission, 2000

PUBLIC & CORPORATE COLLECTIONS

The Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, San Francisco, CA 
The Paul Allen Collection, Seattle, WA
Bank of America, Charlotte, NC
Baytree Capital Associates, LLC, New York, NY 
Bel Air Investment Advisors, San Francisco, CA
Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
The Brattle Group, Inc. Washington, DC Office
City and County of San Francisco, CA
Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, Monterey, CA 
The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI 
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Ellie Mae, Inc., Pleasanton, CA
Doughty Hanson & Co., New York, NY 
Genentech, Inc. South San Francisco, CA 
Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Palo Alto, CA 
Juniper Networks, Sunnyvale, CA 
McKenna, Long & Aldridge, Washington, DC and Albany, NY 
Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA
Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA 
San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA 
Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA 
Twitter, Inc., San Francisco, CA 
United States Embassy, Algeria
United States Embassy, Tunisia 
Vinson & Elkins, LLP, Houston, TX
Wellington Management Company, LLP, San Francisco, CA 

AWARDS  •  FELLOWSHIPS

MacDowell Fellowship, 2010
Ucross Foundation Residency, 2010
Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Fellowship, 2009
Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, 2007
Artadia Award to Visual Artists, San Francisco, 1999

TEACHING 

Visiting Faculty, San Francisco Art Institute, 2010-2011
Associate Professor, San Francisco Art Institute, 2005-2009
Resident Faculty; San Francisco Art Institute, 2003-2005
Visiting Faculty; San Francisco Art Institute, 2000-2003
Visiting Faculty (Senior Lecturer); California College of Arts and Crafts, Fall 2002 

LECTURES AND PANEL DISCUSSIONS 

Panelist; Chopping Wood on the Astral Plane, Eli Ridgway| Contemporary Art, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA, October 2016

Panelist; Technology and Art, Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA, February 2016

Panelist; Painter’s Panel Discussion: Tracey Adams, Amy Ellingson and Christel Dillbohner, Monterey Museum of  Art, Monterey, CA, August 2014

Visiting Artist; Talking Art: In Conversation with Amy Ellingson, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA, June 2014

Visiting Artist; lecture; Kingsley Art Club, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, March 2014

Visiting Artist; lecture; San Jose State University, October 2013

Panelist; Talking Art: Are You Serial?, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, February 2012

Panelist; Talking Art: MFA Programs Exposed, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, March 2007 

Panel Moderator; What Artists Need to Know, jointly sponsored by SFAI and Lifescapes Magazine, San Francisco Art Institute, February, 2006

Visiting Artist Lecture Series, The Oxbow School, Napa, April 2005

Panelist; Neo Mod: Recent Northern California Abstraction, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, January 2005

Panelist; A Meditation on Networks, moderated by Stretcher.org co-publishers Meredith Tromble and David Lawrence; one of a series of discussions for The Way We Work, Southern Exposure's  30th Anniversary Exhibition, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, October 2004

Visiting Artist; lecture; Scripps College, November 2003

Visiting Artist; lecture; Graduate Painting Seminar, California College of the Arts, October 2003

Visiting Artist; Advanced Painting Studio/Visiting Artist Class, California College of Arts and Crafts, June, 2002 Visiting Artist; lecture; Scripps College, February 2002

Visiting Artist; lecture; California College of Arts and Crafts, October 2001

Visiting Artist Series Lecture, San Francisco Art Institute, October 2000

Panelist; What is art for?, Oakland Museum of California, May 1999

Visiting Artist; slide lecture and panel discussion, Woodbury University, Burbank, November 1993 

EDUCATION

M.F.A., California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA, 1992

B.A. (Studio Art) Scripps College, Claremont, CA, 1986

ABOUT ELI RIDGWAY GALLERY

Eli Ridgway Gallery is a Bozeman art gallery specializing in contemporary art by local and national artists working in a variety of mediums, including works by Anne Appleby, Rollin Beamish, James Chronister, Amy Ellingson, Christine Heindl, Wolfgang Ganter, Sherry Markovitz, James Sterling Pitt, Dean Smith, Andy Vogt, and Griff Williams.

Eli Ridgway Gallery was founded in 2008 in San Francisco, CA with a roster of local, national and international emerging artists in conjunction with a dynamic program of events that included musical and spoken-word performances, poetry readings, panel discussions, and student workshops. A gathering place for artists, curators, and collectors to share ideas, the gallery became an important part of the Bay Area arts community while presenting early solo exhibitions by Elisheva Biernoff, Deana Lawson, and Matthew Palladino among many others.

In 2020, Eli Ridgway Gallery re-opened a physical gallery location in the historic brewery district of Bozeman, Montana in the bottling plant of the famed Lehrkind Brewery (est. 1895). Representing a mix of local, national, and international artists, the gallery aims to present a dynamic range of conceptually driven artistic practices in a variety of mediums while providing a location and schedule of events that contribute to the growth and dynamism of the contemporary arts infrastructure in Montana.