Janiva Ellis
{{Short description|American artist}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Janiva Ellis
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1987
| death_place =
| birth_place = Oakland, California
| training = California College of the Arts
| nationality = American
| field = Painting
| movement =
| spouse =
}}
Janiva Ellis (born 1987) is an American painter based in Brooklyn, NY and Los Angeles, CA. Ellis creates figurative paintings that explore the African-American female experience, while incorporating her journey of self-identity within the Black community.{{cite web |last1=Sheets |first1=Hilarie M. |date=2 February 2018 |title=Meet Six Disrupters at the New Museum's Triennial |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/arts/design/new-museum-triennial.html |website=The New York Times}}
Early life and education
Born in Oakland, California, Ellis is biracial. Her mother is white, and her father is black. She was raised by her mother and moved to Hawaii at the age of 7, moving between the islands of Kauai and Oahu.{{cite web |last1=Brown |first1=Laura |title=Stress and Jest: A Conversation with Janiva Ellis |date=Winter 2018 |issue= Vol 21, no 2.|url=https://www.x-traonline.org/article/stress-and-jest-a-conversation-with-janiva-ellis |website=www.x-traonline.org}} From the age of 10 to 16, she lived in Kauai. She started painting at age 10, and was mentored by Tammy Day, a 20-year black woman.
Hawaii has a small Black population, and Ellis' work investigates the complex racial dynamic of her upbringing and the biracial origins of her identity.
Ellis studied painting at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, graduating in 2012.
Professional onset
Upon graduating in 2012, Ellis took a pause from the art world and returned to Hawaii. Ellis did not find any inspiration from the New York art scene, nor companions of the same ethnic background. This was a big loss for Ellis's self identity and reasons why she left Hawaii to begin with.{{Cite web |date=2019-01-29 |title=The 6 Rising Artists to Watch in 2019 |url=https://www.wmagazine.com/story/young-artists-to-watch-2019 |access-date=2023-10-18 |website=W Magazine |language=en}} After taking a few years to find herself, Ellis returned to New York in 2017 with a new outlook on her upbringing and a sense of self identity being both black and white.
In one of Ellis's recent works, The Angles, held at the [https://hammer.ucla.edu/ Hammer Vault Gallery], in Los Angeles, California, she relates her experience of feeling confusion and chaos of the self and the beauty of when one finds the self and accepts what is to be in the work. Critic Aram Moshayedi writes, "Decay and loss permeateThe Angels, yet the intimate experience of looking closely and allowing oneself to succumb to the painting’s wrapping embrace reveals moments of flourish and signs of life amidst the debris."{{Cite web |date=2022-09-24 |title=Hammer Projects: Janiva Ellis {{!}} Hammer Museum |url=https://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2022/hammer-projects-janiva-ellis |access-date=2023-10-18 |website=hammer.ucla.edu |language=en}}
Artistic practice
Ellis describes her paintings as, “not only an attempt to communicate to nonblack women my experience, but also to call to other black women, ‘Do you feel this, too?’” Critic Rachel Corbett has commended Ellis for the psychoanalytic tension in her paintings, stating "The calm country landscapes in the background of Ellis’s paintings clash with her psychologically tormented subjects, who are often tyrannized by cartoon characters."{{Cite web |last=Corbett |first=Rachel |date=2018-02-13 |title=5 Young Stars-in-the-Making From the New Museum's 'Songs for Sabotage' Triennial |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/five-star-making-standouts-from-the-new-museum-triennial-1222271 |access-date=2023-11-08 |website=Artnet News |language=en-US}} Occasionally, Ellis's paintings incorporate religious symbology; such as lambs or angels, referencing the canon of religious painting. In each of her works Ellis continues to share her story incorporating different parts of her self identity. In 2017, Ellis presented "Lick Shot" at 47 Canal,{{Cite web |date=2017-07-16 |title=Janiva Ellis “Lick Shot” at 47 Canal, New York — Mousse Magazine and Publishing |url=https://www.moussemagazine.it/magazine/janiva-ellis-lick-shot-47-canal-new-york-2017 |access-date=2023-11-08 |website=www.moussemagazine.it |language=en-US}} her first solo show in New York City. In 2018, Ellis participated in the New Museum Triennial - “Songs for Sabotage.” Then in 2019 Ellis was included in the Whitney Biennial curated by Rujeko Hockley and Jane Panetta.{{cite web |title=Whitney Biennial 2019 |url=https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2019-Biennial |website=whitney.org |language=en}} In the 2025 exhibition "Fear Corroded Ape," her work was presented at Harvard University's Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts.{{Cite web |title=CCVA {{!}} Janiva Ellis: Fear Corroded Ape |url=https://carpenter.center/exhibitions/janiva-ellis |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=CCVA {{!}} Janiva Ellis: Fear Corroded Ape |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Diehl |first=Travis |date=March 9, 2025 |title=A Painter Whose Complex Work Is Never Finished |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/08/arts/janiva-ellis-painter-cambridge-manhattan.html |access-date=March 9, 2025 |work=The New York Times |page=AR10 |language=en-US |volume=174 |issue=60453 |issn=0362-4331}}
Art career
- 2017 - "You Catch More Flies With Arsenic Than Honey” - Club Pro, Los Angeles, California{{Cite web |title=Proceed with caution: finding hope in the perils of 'You Catch More Flies with Arsenic Than Honey' {{!}} atractivoquenobello |url=https://www.aqnb.com/2017/02/20/proceed-with-caution-finding-hope-in-the-peril-of-you-catch-more-flies-with-arsenic-than-honey/ |access-date=2023-11-08 |website=www.aqnb.com}}
- 2017 - "Cabin Fever" - BBQLA, Los Angeles California{{Cite web |date=2017-07-20 |title=Datebook: Photos of adult babies, race and the public figure, and weaving Brazil's landscape |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/miranda/la-et-cam-datebook-mier-gallery-elizabeth-axtman-20170719-htmlstory.html |access-date=2023-11-08 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}
- 2017 - "Lick Shot” - 47 Canal, New York City{{Cite web |date=2017-07-16 |title=Janiva Ellis “Lick Shot” at 47 Canal, New York — Mousse Magazine and Publishing |url=https://www.moussemagazine.it/magazine/janiva-ellis-lick-shot-47-canal-new-york-2017 |access-date=2023-11-08 |website=www.moussemagazine.it |language=en-US}}
- 2017 - "Prick Up Your Ears” - Karma International, Los Angeles, California{{Cite web |title=Janiva Ellis |url=https://www.contemporaryartlibrary.org/artist/janiva-ellis-11315 |access-date=2023-11-08 |website=Contemporary Art Library |language=en}}
- 2018 - “Painting: Now & Forever, Part III” - Greene Naftali, New York City
- 2018 - Triennial: “Songs for Sabotage” - New Museum, New York City{{Cite web |title=2018 Triennial: Songs for Sabotage |url=http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/2018-triennial-songs-for-sabotage |access-date=2023-11-08 |website=www.newmuseum.org |language=en}}
- 2018 - "Keebler’s Revenge" -The American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York City{{Cite web |last=Cascone |first=Sarah |date=2020-03-03 |title=Editors' Picks: 19 Things Not to Miss in New York’s Art World This Week |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/editors-picks-march-2-2020-1785762 |access-date=2023-10-18 |website=Artnet News |language=en-US}}
- 2019 - Whitney Biennial 2019, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City{{cite web |title=Whitney Biennial 2019 |url=https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2019-Biennial |website=whitney.org |language=en}}
- 2021 - "Janiva Ellis: Rats" - Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami[https://icamiami.org/exhibition/janiva-ellis/ Janiva Ellis: Rats. Feb 25 – Sep 12, 2021. Special Exhibition / 2nd Floor.] Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami.
- 2022 - "The Angles" - Hammer Vault Gallery, Los Angeles, California{{Cite web |date=2022-09-24 |title=Hammer Projects: Janiva Ellis {{!}} Hammer Museum |url=https://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2022/hammer-projects-janiva-ellis |access-date=2023-10-18 |website=hammer.ucla.edu |language=en}}
- 2025 - "Fear Corroded Ape" - Harvard University's Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
Awards
- Rema Hort Mann Foundation Grant, 2018{{Cite web |last=Russeth |first=Andrew |date=2018-02-05 |title=Here Are the Rema Hort Mann Foundation’s 2018 Los Angeles Grantees |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/rema-hort-mann-foundations-2018-los-angeles-grantees-9757/ |access-date=2023-11-11 |website=ARTnews.com |language=en-US}}
- Stanley Hollander Award, 2018{{Cite web |date=2018-02-02 |title=Announcing the 2018 Emerging Artist Grantees in Los Angeles |url=https://www.remahortmannfoundation.org/announcing-the-2018-emerging-artist-grantees-in-los-angeles-2/ |access-date=2023-11-11 |website=Rema Hort Mann Foundation |language=en-US}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/tag/janiva-ellis/ Janiva Ellis | Contemporary Art Daily]
- [https://www.culturedmag.com/janiva-ellis-young-artists-2018/ Janiva Ellis - 30 UNDER 35 2018 - Cultured Magazine]
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Category:African-American painters
Category:Artists from Oakland, California
Category:American contemporary painters