Ellen Kozak
Biography:
I grew up near water, learning to swim at an early age in the nearby Long Island Sound and on family vacations in Maine. Water is the source of life—it goes where it wants— at its own speed, in varied states, marking time, in an indifferent universe. It is the element that has always made the most sense to me.
In 1994 I began to paint on a field easel beside bodies of water. My studio sits on the shoreline of the Hudson River in Greene County. Prior to painting I worked in video during the mid 70s through mid 80s. During these decades video was an analog medium, the video signal traveling in a fluid stream of electrons. Fluidity is a shared property of both paint and video, the materials, and methods with which I work. This commonality creates a sympathetic relationship and an ongoing dialog between the concepts and inherent craft in each medium. Recently I’ve noticed an inverse relationship between my paintings and video; while my paintings collapse hours of observation into ostensibly still surfaces, my video pieces are typically composed from still images of the same subject, water, which by nature is in constant motion.
Bodies of water are my subject, but I also depend upon their surfaces to perform a functional role, acting as an intermediary for indirectly observing the world above. Like a lens, the surface of a river can assimilate reflection, color, and pattern. The surface collects activity from the sky above, the movements of clouds, fog, foliage, planes in flight, and on the Hudson, barges that transport crude oil and hazardous material. Water and oil paint share properties of viscosity. I explore paint as a mimetic medium—it has an honest relationship with my subject.
Reflections, like mirrors, show us a version of the visible world, but they can also impose ambiguity about where things are and where one stands in space. This recalls sensations that I felt as a child while swimming. Uncertainty can undermine one’s sense of knowing, and the water’s transparency can cause displacement, bestowing optical illusions. I use this disorientation to confound my point of view and to help me step out of my own way as an observer. Indirect observation can create collisions and magnify attributes by imposing distance, both perceptual and psychological. Mediated observation can suggest metaphor and render what is known equivocal.
Résumé:
Education:
MIT, Center for Advanced Visual Studies, Cambridge, MA (M.S.Visual Studies)
Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, Massachusetts (B.F.A.)
Solo Exhibitions:
2021 David Richard Gallery, New York, NY
2018 riverthatflowsbothways, 4-channel video installation, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
2016 Periodical, Cross Contemporary Art, Saugerties, New York
2012 Glow: Recent Paintings Argazzi Art, Lakeville, CT
2010 Site / Sight: Recent Paintings, Argazzi Art, Lakeville, CT
2009 Hudson River Trilogy: Ellen Kozak, The Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY
2004 Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery, New York, NY
2003 Bryant Street Gallery, Palo Alto, CA
2002 Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, New York
2001 Notations on a River: Ellen Kozak: Paintings, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
Art Resources Transfer Inc., New York, NY
Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery, New York, NY
1998 President's Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
1996 Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY
1994 Carolyn J. Roy Gallery, New York, NY
1992 55 Mercer Gallery, New York, NY
1986 Jay Gallery, New York, NY
Van Buren, Brazelton, Cutting Gallery, Cambridge, MA
1985 Gallery Amelia, Tokyo, Japan
Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Art, Utsunomia, Japan
1983 Osaka Contemporary Art Center, Osaka, Japan
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2021 Mohawk Hudson Regional, Opalka Gallery, Russel Sage College, Albany, NY
The Subject is the Line, curated by Donna Moylan, Thompson Giroux Gallery, Chatham, NY
All the Pieces Matter, Curated by Leslie Roberts, Studio Archive Project, Brooklyn, NY online exhibit
Landscape Re-imagined, curated by Cynthia Carlson & Jean Feinberg, Claverack Public Library, Claverack, NY
2020 11 Women of Spirit: Mini-Freeze Art Fair, Zurcher Gallery, New York, NY
2019 Turbulence, Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Gallery, curated by Odelette Cho, New York, NY
2018 State of Emergency, Nina Felshin & Lenore Malen curators, onsite projection,The Illuminator, NYC
2017 Walks With Artists: The Hudson Valley and Beyond, works from the permanent collection, The Hudson River Museum, curated by Laura Vookles and Ted Barrow,Yonkers, NY
Site/Sight: Suzanne Caporael, Martha Diamond, Jacqueline Gourevitch, Sharon Horvath, Ellen Kozak & Joyce Robins, curated by Ellen Kozak, catalog with essay by Carter Ratcliff, Cross Contemporary Art, Saugerties, NY
State of Emergency, curated by Nina Felshin and Lenore Malen, The Queens Museum of Art, NY
La nuit de l’instant 2017, expérimental video, film, and photography festival, Marseille, France
Undercurrents: The River as Metaphor, The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz, NY, curated by Livia Strauss
River Woman, Odetta Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2016 Vanishing Point, Art House Productions, Jersey City, New Jersey
Heliotrope, Odetta Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Through the Rabbit Hole, Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2015 Prix Moulin à Nef Anniversary Exhibition, La Chapelle Sainte Catherine, Auvillar, France
Shifting Ecologies, curated by Marianne Van Lent, Athens Cultural Center, NY
Small Works, Baruch College, New York City, curated by Richard Timperi
Nation II: Circling the Wagons, Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2014 Le Show des Amis, Show Room Gowanus, Brooklyn, NY
Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region, Albany Institute of History and Art, Curated by Stephan Westfall, Albany, NY
Shifting Ecologies, curated by Marianne Van Lent, The Painting Center, NY
Nation II: at the Alamo, Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2013 ICE, Athens Cultural Center, curated by Carrie Feder, Athens, NY
Stone Canoe, Curated by Amy Cheng, Community Art Center, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
2011 Strata of Memory: Kevin Kelly + Ellen Kozak, Amy Simon Fine Art, Westport, CT
2010 The Nature of it All, Amy Simon Fine Art, Westport, CT
Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region, curated by Charles Desmarais, The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY
Contemporary Art and Praxis, curated by Thomas Collins, Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz, NY
Small Works Invitational, The Painting Center, New York, NY
2009 Different at Every Turn: Contemporary Painters of the Hudson River, The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY (traveling exhibition, catalog)
2008 What’s in a Face, Salena Art Gallery, Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY
2007 The New Hudson River School, Riverstone Arts, Haverstraw, NY
Cowgirls2, Brik Gallery, Catskill, NY
2005 30th Anniversary Exhibition, Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY
2004 Luminous Landscape: Edges of Objectivity, Poughkeepsie Art Museum, Poughkeepsie, NY
2003 Abstraction + 4, Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery, New York, NY
Art a Century Apart: 1903 and 2003, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson Mississipp
The Workshop Portfolios, Galeria Espacio Abierto, Havana, Cuba
2002 Reversal: Relief Intaglio, Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Holiday Realities, Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery, New York, NY
2001 Collectors’ Series 2001, Vero Beach Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, FL
Artists' Proof, Boston Public Library, Boston, MA
Members Gallery Exhibition, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
2000 Hot Art - Summer 2000, Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery, New York, NY
1999 Art Resources Transfer Inc., New York, NY
Location: a Survey of Hudson Valley Artists, Kendal Art and Design, Hudson, NY
1998 Absolut, David McKee Gallery, New York, NY
1997 Art Resources Transfer Inc., New York, NY
1997 Invitational, Kendal Art and Design, Hudson, NY
1996 Gallery Artists, Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY
1994 Landscape Paintings, Salena Gallery, Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY
Hudson Valley Landscape & Still Life, Lorraine Kessler Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY
Faculty Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, NY
Women in Watercolor, Boston Public Library, Wiggen Gallery, Boston, MA
1993 A-Z,0-9, E.S. Vandam Gallery, New York, NY
A Small Salon, The Painting Center, New York, NY
Dreaming the Landscape: Four New York Artists, Chassie Post Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
1992 Land, Trenkman Gallery, New York, NY
September Invitational, Bill Bace Gallery, New York, NY
Abstract, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, Massachusetts
1992 Artists' Relief Portfolio for the Homeless, Michael Walls Gallery, New York, NY
The Poetic Impulse, curated by David Hornung, Kathryn Sermas Gallery, New York, NY
Painters of the Depicted Unknown, Procter Art Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
1991 PressWork: The Art of Women Printmakers, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, & Evehjem Museum, traveling exhibition. (Catalog)
Indiana Collects: The Steven G. Conant Collection, curated by Martha Donovan Opdahl, William Weston Clarke Emison Art Center,
DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana. (Catalog)
A Salute to Boston: Recent Acquisitions, Boston Public Library, Wiggin Gallery, Boston, MA
1990 The Figure Now, Cork Gallery at Lincoln Center, New York, NY
1989 Lines of Vision, curated by Dr. Judy Collischan, Hillwood Gallery, C.W. Post College and Blum Helman, New York, NY, traveling exhibition (book published)
Retrogarde '89, Cork Gallery at Lincoln Center, New York, NY
1989 Contemporary Self Portraits, Marymount Manhattan College, New York, NY
1988 The Painterly Print, Sragow Gallery, New York, NY
1987 Figurative Prints, Associated American Artists, New York, NY
1986 Invitational, van Stratten Gallery, Chicago, IL
1985 A Summer Selection, Castelli Uptown, New York, NY
1984 Invitational, Jay Gallery, New York, NY
"Fast Forward-Women in Film and Video," Screening of Boston area Video Artists, WBZ-TV, Alston, MA
1983 1983 National, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Art, Utsunomia, Japan
1982 Boston Symphony Hall Gallery, Boston, MA
1981 Centervideo, Koelnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany & American Center for Artists and Students, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
WGBH TV New Television Workshop, produced by Susan Dowling, broadcast of "Waiting", 10”
1980 "Four Evenings of Performance: Ellen Kozak & Victor Young," Helen Shlien Gallery, Boston
1978 Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
1977 Works for the Landscape, Decordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
Essays/Limited Editions:
Tree of Names and A River, limited edition with poetry by Geoffrey O’Brien, Dieu Donné Papermill, NY 2005
Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes: Notations on a Landscape, limited edition artists' book with poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Stephen Mitchell, foreword by Dore Ashton, Cross-Cultural Communications, 1996
Contemporary Video Art in Japan by Ellen Kozak, Media Arts Volume 1, Number 7, Autumn 1984
Bibliography:
Painting Perceptions Blog, Interview by Larry Groff with Ellen Kozak, March 2020
My Hudson River Prime, Essay by Ellen Kozak Artists and Climate Change Blog, November 7th, 2019
Riverthatflowsbothways, Blue Mountain Commons, by Ted Barrow, Curator Hudson River Museum, June 2018
Stone Canoe, A journal of Arts, Literature & Social Commentary | Number 7, Syracuse University, 2013
Hudson River Trilogy: Ellen Kozak, Ellen J. Keiter, The Katonah Museum of Art, Exhibition Brochure, 2009
At the Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Another Side of Ellen Kozak, Richard Huntington, The Buffalo News,10/2002
Holiday Realities, The New York Times, Ken Johnson, Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery, January 4, 2002
Ellen Kozak Paintings: Reflections on a River, Art New England, April/May 2002
Monet-like Reflection of the Hudson River, Georgette Gouveia, The Journal News, November 9, 2001
Hudson River Museum Mounts Three Shows Inspired by its Namesake, Leslie Gaglia,, The Riverdale Press, October 18, 2001
Proof In Print: A Community of Printmaking Studios, Boston Public Library, 2001
Art Guide: Art Resources Transfer, The New York Times, Holland Cotter, November 21, 1997
Art & Antiques, George Melrod, review of solo exhibition at Elizabeth Harris Gallery, January 1996
The New Yorker, Valerie Steiker, review of solo exhibition at Carolyn J. Roy Gallery, February 28, 1994
Art in America, Robert Edelman, review of solo exhibition at Carolyn J. Roy Gallery, June 1994
Presswork: The Art of Women Printmakers, Essays by Eleanor Heartney & Trudy Victoria Hansen, 1991
ndiana Collects: The Steven G. Conant Collection, Catalog Essay by Lesa Mason, PH.D. , William Weston Clarke Emison Art Center, DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana, 1991
Lines of Vision: Drawings by Contemporary Women, Dr. Judy Collischan, Hudson Hills Press, Inc., 1989
The Narrated Earth, Christine Temin, The Boston Globe, 1987
Exploring Feminine Identity, Nancy Stapin, The Boston Herald, 1987
Disparate Styles in a Joint Exhibit, Christine Temin, The Boston Globe, 1986
Two Views of Oppression: The Heroic & the Imprisoned, Nancy Stapin, The Boston Herald, 1986
Ellen Kozak and Grant Drumheller, Eugene Narrett, Art New England, 1986
New Editions, Jacqueline Brody, The Print Collector's Newsletter, 1985
Artist's Showcase, WGBH Channel 2 TV, Boston, 1980
Centervideo: Film, Video, TV and Telecommunications 1968-1962, Otto Piene with Elizabeth Goldring and Vin Grabill editors, the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, MIT
Fellowships and Grants:
2019, 2012 Prix Résidence Moulin à Nef, VCCA / Auvillar, France
2013,’05,’00 Pratt Institute, Faculty Development Grant
2004 George Sugarman Foundation Artists’ Grant
1996 New York Foundation for the Arts, Artists' New Works Fiscal Sponsorship Program
1990,1986 Yaddo Colony, Residency
1988 Blue Mountain Center, Residency
1983 Japan Victor Corporation, Tokyo, Artists' Grant
1979 Sloan Foundation, Grant
1978 Cambridge Arts Council, Cambridge, MA, Artists' Grant
Appointments and Activities:
2018 - present Board of Directors, Riverkeeper Inc.
1993 - 2016 Adjunct Professor CCE, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
1998 - present Art New England, Massachusetts College of Art, Bennington, Vermont
1996 Visiting Artist, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
1993 Lecturer, Visual Arts Program, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
1991 - 1995 Visiting Artist, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY
1988 - 1993 Studio Instructor of Drawing and Painting, Art Center, 92nd Street Y, NYC, NY
1982 - 1984 Lecturer, Seian Art University, Kyoto, Japan
1980 - 1982 Artist in Residence, Dept. of Visual & Performing Arts, Mass. College of Art, Boston, MA
1979 - 1980 CAVS Fellow, MIT, Center for Advanced Visual Studies Cambridge, MA
1978 - 1980 Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts, Department of Art, Boston, MA
Permanent Collections:
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (library collection)
The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, NY Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA
Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA
Decordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Art, Japan
National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC
Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA
Harvard University, Houghton Library, Cambridge, MA
Yale University, Sterling Memorial Library, New Haven, CT
New York Public Library, New York, NY
Trinity College, Watkinson Library, Hartford, CT
Bucknell University, Bertrand Library, Lewisburg, PA
Dean Witter Reynolds Inc., Boston, MA
Lang Communications, New York, NY