Artists

Stephen Ellis

Biography works Exhibitions

Lamp Black

1/08/2023 to 27/08/2023

Lamp Black refers to the pigment Stephen Ellis used to produce the works in this exhibition, its name also used as a metaphor to illuminate contradictions in our current relationship to climate change.

Unfolding

2/08/2022 to 28/08/2022

Sanderson are pleased to present the exhibition Unfolding by Stephen Ellis. The exhibition will feature a suite of six drawings by the artist, which are part of his ongoing project exploring themes of environmental degradation and climate change.

Each to each

10/08/2021 to 5/09/2021

Stephen Ellis has always posed objects on tabletops to create small worlds for his drawings. Now the pandemic has given the domestic interior and the still life a new significance – the world becomes smaller for all of us.

Still Life

15/09/2020 to 11/10/2020

The Still Life images refer to the iconography of war movies, war comics and war reportage; at the same time the diminution of scale and the use of toy soldiers and kitchen containers, speaks to the invasion of safe spaces and the impact of war service on home and family. The title of the suite refers to the domestic scale and to the quotidian objects used in the dioramas.

Pond

12/11/2019 to 1/12/2019

Robert FitzRoy was New Zealand’s second Governor. He had been the captain of Darwin’s Beagle and went on to found the British Meteorological Office. His life’s work was the prediction of storms and the protection of shipping and seafarers from their destructive force. To that end he invented the weather forecast and a system of storm warnings that could be telegraphed to coastal stations and displayed to ships as drums and cones hung from masts on shore, indicating wind strength and direction. FitzRoy is a hinge between climate ignorance and climate science.

Headforemost

25/09/2018 to 14/10/2018

Stephen Ellis’ newest body of work Headforemost is a suite of four large scale, intricate ball point pen drawings that capture and comment on local history. Ellis’ works are awe inspiring. With a commitment to both process and the research grounding the work, he layers meaning and technique to create works that intrigue. Working in the humble ball point pen, Ellis’ large scale works are truly unique and have to be seen in person to understand his mastery of line, light and composition. Free Kids Drawing workshop with Stephen Ellis Saturday 13th October 10 - 12 As a part of ArtWeek Auckland 2018

Opposite Shore

25/07/2017 to 6/08/2017

In his latest body of work, Opposite Shore, Ellis refers to various migrations across the seas, including those of environmental refugees and his own family’s passage from Scotland and Ireland to New Zealand in search of a new home.

Permafrost: Drawings 2015-2016

5/04/2016 to 24/04/2016

The utilitarian writing device known as the ‘ball-point pen’ is the medium used by school children in 1B4 exercise books, of crossword warriors and doodlers by the telephone; it’s the people’s most familiar mark-making tool. Amidst the broad array of high art media, the 21st century boasts some of the most technologically advanced art production since the first printing press was made. Stephen Ellis has chosen the quotidian ball-point pen and correction fluid above all other showy media; the humble biro is without vanity, and yet Stephen Ellis’ drawings are nothing short of magnificent illusory alchemy.