“Human Nature”
Exhibition Dates: 18 Feb – 26 March, 2017
Opening Reception: Sunday, 19 Feb, 2017. 6-8pm
Catalogue available with essay by Jana Prikryl
Press Release
Pierogi is delighted to present a one-person exhibition of recent paintings by Elliott Green. A decade ago, Green believed that his “home was in his head, and the ideas and images it produced would be carried independently wherever I went, but [a] change of place …transformed my work and myself.” These new paintings are the outcome of this shift and they merge abstraction, emotion, and riffs on landscape, resulting in highly charged, crystalized moments. Jana Prikryl notes, “Elliott Green’s paintings appear to be in continuous motion, the way animals, plants, and ultimately rocks and mountains are in continuous motion, even when our human vision fails to apprehend it. Placing great thick gestures of paint amid minute intricacies and vice versa, his compositions demonstrate the movement of the universe on both the macro and the micro scales.”
In paintings titled “Sky Slip,” “Fire Drip,” “The Photon Skirt,” “Mineral Ancestors,” and others, a swirl of paint becomes a swath of sky, a jagged line becomes a mountain or ridge and then, just as swiftly, a schism occurs and a smear or angle reveals itself to be entirely abstract, pulling us out of the impulse to pareidolia, to see something representational in a stroke of paint. David Ebony writes of “Mammatus,” “[r]ather than depicting any real mountains…Green’s rocky vista seems emblematic of anything insurmountable or unapproachable.” Inserting elements “…like a single bravura brushstroke, is a purely abstract device that breaks the illusion of the infinite landscape, reminding the viewer that this, after all, is just paint-on-canvas.” “…[P]erpetrating such acts of narrative on Green’s canvases must fill the viewer with ambivalence: you’re teased into seeing things that aren’t really present. It’s almost as if this systole-diastole between interpretation and unprejudiced seeing were the aim of each painting.” (Jana Prikryl)
The painting title “Beach Mountain” references geological discoveries along these lines of displacement and disruption, where shells and fossils of sea creatures found on mountain tops first led to the questioning of religious concepts of time versus geological realities.
Through their rapid sequencing, layering, and strata-like formation, Green’s paintings also reveal the passage of time and their own kind of evolution. “[A] painting like Green’s Expander—which seems to me a bold series of formal departures, suggesting the unceasing incursions of time’s fourth dimension into what we know as the first three and thereby straining an identity’s need for coherence, while refusing such readings in just the polyvalent way that, say, Emily Dickinson’s “My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun – ” resists paraphrase—a painting like Expander operates like an expander on the mind, inserting thoughts (see my foregoing m-dashes) while earlier thoughts are still forming.” (Jana Prikryl)
This exhibition will include a group of recent paintings ranging in size from 18 x 24 inches to 6 ½ x 11 ½ feet and will be accompanied by a catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition.
Elliott Green was born in Detroit, Michigan. He moved to New York City as a young man and lived there for twenty-four years. In 2005 he moved to Athens, New York, a small town situated between the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River. He has received a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, the Rome Prize (2011), and an Academy of Arts and Letters Purchase Prize, along with numerous residency grants.
CV
Lives and works in Athens, New York
Born 1960, Detroit, MI
EDUCATION
1978-81 University of Michigan
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017 Human Nature, Pierogi, New York, NY
2016 John Davis Gallery, Hudson, NY
2009 D’Amelio Terras, New York
2005 Singer Gallery, Denver, CO
2003 Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York
2002 Center for Visual Art + Culture, University of Connecticut, Stamford and Storrs
2001 Postmasters, New York
2000 Postmasters, New York
1998 Postmasters, New York
1996 Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, IL
I-Space, The University of Illinois, Chicago
Phyllis Kind Gallery, Chicago
1994 Fawbush, New York
1993 Fawbush, New York
1991 Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York
Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago
1989 Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York
1986 Simon Cerigo, New York
1983 Schweyer-Galdo, Detroit
COLLABORATIVE EXHIBITIONS
2016 Studio10, Brooklyn, NY, “Narratives of Enigma”, with David Brody
The Frank Institute at CR10, Linlithgo NY, Creation Stories, with Colin Gee
2010 Clough-Hanson Gallery, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN, “Team SHaG”, w/Amy Sillman and David Humphrey
2006 I-Space, The University of Illinois, Chicago, “Team SHaG”
2005 Lafayette College, Easton, PA, “Team SHaG”
1998 Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT, “Team SHaG”
Pamela Auchincloss Gallery, New York, “Team SHaG”
1997 Postmasters, New York, “Team SHAG”
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2016 “Outside In”, Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, New York
“Representing Rainbows”, Gerald Peters Gallery, New York
“Shimmering Substance: Selections from Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grantees of the Hudson Valley”,
Kleinert/James Center for the Arts, Woodstock, NY
“Faulted Valley Fog”, Transmitter Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2015 “Gazing Inward”, Coop Gallery, Nashville TN
“Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts” and “Exhibition of Work by Recipients of Honors and Awards”, American
Academy of Arts and Letters, New York
2014 “Elements of Style”, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
2012 “Le ciel est par-dessus le toit”, Lucien Terras, New York
2010 “Myths of the Near Future”, Nicole Fiacco Gallery, Hudson, New York
“Town and Country”, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York
“Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts” and “Exhibition of Work by Recipients of Honors and Awards”, American
Academy of Arts and Letters, New York
2008 “Ultra-Concentrated Joy”, New York Academy of Art, New York
2007 “By Invitation Only”, Kinz, Tillou + Feigen, New York
“Multiple Interpretations”, New York Public Library, New York
“The Beholders Eye”, Salmagundi Club, New York
2006 “Apres Nous, Le Deluge”, Francis M Naumann Gallery, New York
2005 “Visitors from the East”, Billy Shire Fine Arts, Culver City, CA
“Selections from the Neiman Center, Columbia University”, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York
“Print, Process, Collaboration”, Savannah College of Art and Design, Georgia
2004 “It’s a Wonderful Life: Psychodrama in Contemporary Painting”, Spaces, Cleveland, OH
“Colored Pencil”, KS Art, New York
2003 “Comic Release”, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Carnegie-Mellon University
Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
“Into the Woods”, Julie Saul Gallery, New York
2001 “Contemporary Drawings”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver
“Prints from Columbia University”, Susan Inglett Gallery, New York
2000 “Self-Made Men”, curated by Alexi Worth, DC Moore Gallery, New York;
“Norton Acquisitions”, Haggerty Museum, Milwaukee, WI
Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI
“The Figure: Another Side of Modernism,” Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, New York
“The End”, ExitArt, New York
“No Rhyme or…”, Postmasters Gallery, New York
“Nude and Narrative”, PPOW, New York
“Cyber Drawings”, Christinerose Gallery, New York
1999 Center for Print Studies, Columbia University, New York
Pace/Prints, New York
Tibor De Nagy, New York
Campo & Campo, Belgium
Singer Gallery, Denver
1997 Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art
Diverseworks Art Space, Houston
1996 Thread Waxing Space, New York
Hill Gallery, Birmingham, MI
Caren Golden Fine Art, New York
Exit Art, New York
K&E Gallery, New York
Adam Baumgold Fine Art, New York
Phyllis Kind Gallery, Chicago
1995 Exit Art, New York
Three Rivers Art Festival, Pittsburgh
E.S. Vandam, New York
1994 Fawbush, New York
Frumkin-Adams Gallery, New York
1993 The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati
Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York
The Drawing Center, New York
Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, IL
1992 Exit Art, New York
David Beitzel Gallery, New York
Marsha Fogel Gallery, East Hampton
Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York
1991 Galerie Schultze, Cologne
Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York
White Columns, New York
1990 Pence Gallery, Santa Monica
White Columns, New York
Galerie Paule Anglim, San Francisco
Althea Viafora Gallery, New York
1989 Renee Fotouhi Fine Art, New York
1986 Simon Cerigo Gallery, New York
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Yau, John. “Elliott Green Can See for Miles and Miles and Miles,” Hyperallergic, February 26, 2017
Smith, Roberta. “Roiling, Vibrant, Untamed and Abused,” The New York Times, March 17, 2017
Hoban, Phoebe. “From Shangri-La to Hell: Elliott Green’s Human Nature,” Riot Material, March 4, 2017
Malone, Peter. “Elliott Green Paintings Marry Landscapes to Dramatic Abstraction,” Hamptons Art Hub, March 6, 2017
Prikryl, Jana. “The Painter of Continuous Motion,” The New York Review of Books, February 18, 2017
Prikryl, Jana. “Nothing’s Ever Standing Still,” Elliott Green: Human Nature, Catalogue Essay, Pierogi Press, 2017
Ebony, David. “Top 10 New York Gallery Shows of 2016,” Artnet News, December 2016
Yau, John. “Why Give a Name to It?,” Hyperallergic, December 2016
Yau, John. “Summer Carousing and Revelry,” Hyperallergic, July 2016
Ayers, Robert. “Elliott Green: D’Amelio Terras”, ArtNews, December 2009, p. 110
Maine, Stephen. “Joanne Greenbaum and Elliott Green”, Art in America, November 2009, p. 194
Brody, David. “Elliott Green: Personified Abstraction at D’Amelio Terras”, ArtCritical.com, October 2009
Neyenesch, Cassandra. “Joanne Greenbaum: Hollywood Squares, Elliott Green: Personified Abstraction”, The Brooklyn
Rail, October 2009
Worth, Alexi. “Elliott Green’s Family Values”, with eight reproductions, The Sienese Shredder #3, 2009
Wolff, Rebecca (Editor). Magazine cover and nine reproductions, Fence, Vol. 9, No. 2, Winter/Spring 2007
Brown, Brice. Exhibition catalog, Apres Nous, Le Deluge, Francis M Naumann Fine Art, New York, 2006
Katherine Chapin. Exhibition catalog, Visitors From the East, Billy Shire Fine Arts, Culver City, CA, 2005
Exhibition catalog, It’s a Wonderful Life: Psychodrama in Contemporary Painting, March 2004
“Working Proof: Elliott Green”, (review), Art on Paper, September-October 2001
Exhibition catalog, The Figure: Another Side of Modernism, January 2001
Ebony, David. “Elliott Green,” (exhibition review), Art in America, February 2001
Artist Page, six reproductions, Harper’s, November 2000
Smith, Lee. “Once Upon a Canvas; The Elliott Green Story,” Modern Painters, Autumn 2000
McAdam, Barbara. “Elliott Green,” (exhibition review), Artnews, September 2000
Ebony, David. “Ten Picks”, artnet.com, June 2000
Goings On About Town, “Elliott Green/Steve Mumford” (short review), The New Yorker, June 5, 2000
Johnson, Ken. “Elliott Green,” Art in Review, The New York Times, May 26, 2000
Goings On About Town, “Elliott Green”, (reproduction) The New Yorker, May 15, 2000
“Cyberdrawings” (exhibition review), Art On Paper, January 15, 2000
Exhibition catalog, 26 American Artists, Campo & Campo, Belgium, October 1999
“Gravity & Float”, seven reproductions, Fence, Spring 1998
H-O, Paul. “Elliott Green at Postmasters Gallery” (exhibition review), artnet.com, February, 1998
Shulz, David. “Editor’s Choice”, (exhibition review), Bomb, Spring 1998
Artist project, Interview, February 1998
Goings On About Town, “Elliott Green” (exhibition review), The New Yorker, February 9, 1998
Robinson, Walter; H-O, Paul. Gallery Beat (television), January 1998
Levin, Kim. “Voice Choices” (exhibition review), The Village Voice, January 27, 1998
Exhibition catalog, Contemporary Art Series #8, Elliott Green, Krannert Museum, April 1996
Karmel, Pepe. “ Persistence of Pagan Myth in Modern Imagination” (exhibition review), New York Times, December 29,
1995
MacAdam, Barbara A. “Elliott Green: Fawbush Gallery” (exhibition review), Artnews, February 1995
New Observations (New York), No. 105. March-April 1995
Ostrow, Saul. “Strutting their Stuff”, Bomb (New York), Fall 1995
Sillman, Amy. “Drawings: Surrealism & the Current Vernacular”, Zingmagazine (New York), 1995
“Desire”, Visionaire Number 12, Fall 1994
Schaffner, Ingrid. “Cursive”, The Parkett Series with Contemporary Artists, No. 42, 1994
Upshaw, Reagan. “Elliott Green: Fawbush Gallery”, (exhibition review), Art in America No. 12, 1993
Schaffner, Ingrid. Exhibition catalog, Return of the Cadavre Exquis, The Drawing Center, New York, 1993
King, Elaine. Exhibition catalog, The Figure as Fiction, The Contemporary Arts Center, , November 1993
Kimmelman, Michael. “Fever: Exit Art” (exhibition review), New York Times, December 18, 1992
Humphrey, David. “ Elliott Green: Hirschl and Adler Modern” (exhibition review), “New York Fax”,
Art Issues (Los Angeles), Sept/Oct, Number 19, 1991
Handy, Ellen. “Elliott Green: Hirschl and Adler Modern” (exhibition review), Arts, October 1991
Baker, Kenneth. “Galleries: A Promising Quartet of Painters”, San Francisico Chronicle, May 10, 1990
Adams, Brooks. “Preview”, Interview, September 1989
FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS AND RESIDENCIES
2016 Yaddo Residency
2011-12 Rome Prize
2010 American Academy of Arts and Letters Purchase Prize
2005 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant
1999 Yaddo Residency
1998 The Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant
1995 Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation Grant
1993 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship
MacDowell Colony Residency
1991 Yaddo Residency