Maggie Ellis

Maggie Ellis (b. 1991, Atlanta, Georgia; lives and works in New York. MFA Hunter College 2017, BFA SCAD 2014). An unflinching observationalist, Ellis’ subject matter oscillates between the pleasant and innocuous to the voyeuristic and disconcerting. Ellis likewise commands her stylistic repertoire and painting technique to suit each composition, ranging from photorealistic precision to frenetic, Goya-esque strokes around some of her more ambitious depictions. Embodying the ethos of her paintings, Ellis describes of her own New York experience: “On a crowded subway I feel nurtured (and disgusted), a singular body being held in a sea of bodies. The train car serves as a dirty womb carrying all of us. And we are speeding through dark mysterious cavities under the city. We don’t know each other but we’re together. My eye moves around independently of my body and I become a wandering eye watching. I am perceiving and being perceived at once. The perspective of an outsider has always been my vantage point.”