Ellen Kahn moved from Philadelphia to New York City in 1999 and to Brooklyn in 2003. She received her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992, and BFA from Tufts University in affiliation with the Museum School, Boston, MA in 1983. She also has a M.Ed. from Temple University, Tyler School of Art, Elkins Park, PA. Her art explores the confluence of the natural and manmade worlds, chaos and order, gesture and structure, intellect and intuition. She achieves this by adroitly interweaving layers of imagery in conjunction with her handling of paint and dry materials. Through the careful articulation of the surface, including accumulative and reductive processes and the use of paint mediums, areas of transparency are created. Kahn combines images derived from botanical prints, literature and text, linear elements that suggest netting, and patterns to make sensual, evocative, layered paintings.

Kahn’s work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States and abroad, in both solo and group exhibitions and it is in numerous public and private collections. She had a solo show at Metaphor Contemporary Art in Brooklyn, NY in 2005. Some recent group exhibitions include: Figure/Ground, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY curated by Carter Foster, curator of drawings at the Whitney Museum of American Art; Drawing on Building: A Perch Project for the Drawing Center, New York, NY; 2x2, A Cultural Ark, Morelia, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Mexico; Four Painters, 55 Mercer Street Gallery, New York, NY; Marks, Target Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, Alexandria, VA; The Big Abstract Show, The Painting Center, New York, NY; Get Small, Julie Baker Fine Art, Nevada City, CA. Residencies include, Fundacion Valparaiso, Mojacar Playa, Spain; Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz, NY; and the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT.

In addition to painting, she is a dedicated and gifted art educator. She has taught children and adults and currently teaches art and aesthetics with the prestigious Lincoln Center Institute in New York City. Previous teaching experience includes Lesley University, Cambridge, MA; 92nd Street Y Art Center, New York, NY; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA; and Abington Friends School, Jenkintown, PA.

visit her website at www.ellenkahn.com

 

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