Ellen Kozak

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.

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     30^th 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 7^th, 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