ABOUT:
Steve Ellis, (born 1970 in Washington DC,) is a New York based multimedia artist specializing in oil painting and sculpture, using and subverting pop culture iconography to explore consumerism, false idols and the death of print media. Ellis has taken American flotsam such as crashed cars, cigarette lighters, and broken high heels shoes elevated them to high art.

His long list of exhibitions in galleries starts with a 2001 showing of lighters in Colin De Land’s American Fine Arts in New York. Besides gallery walls, Ellis’ work has been commissioned by Zoo York skateboards, for the credit sequence for the film The Others, album covers for the band Luna, art for the hit show At Home with Amy Sedaris, and most recently painting the front panel of the Coney Island Cyclone. Besides paying tribute to pop culture, his work Is pop culture.

Steve Ellis has worked closely in his Lower East Side art community for over two decades curating group shows in his alternative art spaces. He co-created the portrait project Ignited New York and more recently designed and received a New York Acker Award box in 2018. Ellis is an adjunct professor at School of Visual Arts and art therapist to inmates at Rikers Island.

Steve Ellis Website