Ellen Altfest (born 1970 in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

) is an American painter who lives and works in New York. She is best known for her realist depictions of landscapes and still lifes that often blur the distinction between the two genres.

Education

Altfest graduated from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

with a BFA in Painting and a BA in English, an MFA in Painting from

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

in 1997, and studied at the

Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture is an artists residency located in Madison, Maine, just outside of Skowhegan. Every year, the program accepts online applications from emerging artists from November through January, and selects 65 ...

in 2002.

Artwork

According to art critic Randy Kennedy, Altfest is known for her "painstakingly labor-intensive canvases that look at things in the world." For example, while completing her 2013 work ''Tree'', Altfest spent 13 months sitting in front of a tree trunk exploring the details. Altfest is also known for small-scale works. The previously mentioned ''Tree'', an oil on canvas, is approximately the size of a piece of typing paper. Altfest had ten works shown at Bellwether Gallery in 2005 at her "first New York gallery show." Altfest organized "Men," a group show in 2006 of ten paintings of men by ten different women artists at I-20. In 2007, London's

White Cube White Cube is a contemporary art gallery founded by Jay Jopling in London in 1993. The gallery has two branches in London: White Cube Mason's Yard in central London and White Cube Bermondsey in South East London; White Cube Hong Kong, in Centra ...

gallery held a solo exhibition of her work which included the first extensive series of paintings of men. A monograph was released on the occasion of her exhibition at White Cube. Her work has featured in several prominent exhibitions, including "The Leg" at the

Chinati Foundation The Chinati Foundation/La Fundación Chinati is a contemporary art museum located in Marfa, Texas, and based upon the ideas of its founder, artist Donald Judd. Mission The specific intention of Chinati is to preserve and present to the public pe ...

in Marfa, Texas in 2010, "Head and Plant" at the

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art is a museum at 235 Bowery, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-nam ...

in New York in 2012, "The Encyclopedic Palace" at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

in 2013, and a survey exhibition at the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom in 2015. Altfest's influences include

Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer ( , ;; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, Old master prin ...

's ''The Large Turf'',

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, Pollock was widely noticed for his "Drip painting, drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household ...

Sylvia Sleigh Sylvia Sleigh (8 May 1916 – 24 October 2010) was a Welsh-born naturalised American Realism (visual arts), realist painter who lived and worked in New York City. She is known for her role in the feminist art movement and especially for r ...

, and

Lucian Freud Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. His early career as a painter was inf ...

. Altfest's works also include: * ''Large Rock,'' (2002) * ''Studio Window at Night,'' (2003) * ''Tumbleweed,'' (2005) * ''Two Logs,'' (2005) * ''Penis,'' (2006) * ''Reclining Nude,'' (2006-2007) * ''Gourds,'' (2006-2007) * ''Green Gourd,'' (2007) * ''The Butt,'' (2007) * ''The Bent Leg,'' (2008) * ''Torso,'' (2010) * ''Armpit,'' (2011) * ''Abdomen,'' (2015)

References

External links

Ellen Altfest - Artist Page - Bellwether Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Altfest, Ellen 1970 births Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning alumni Living people Painters from New York (state) Trompe-l'œil artists 20th-century American painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American women painters Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture alumni 20th-century American women painters

Education

Artwork

Further reading

References

External links