Tim Ellis - Cypher

About

 Within his practice, Ellis investigates ideas of cycles, faith, and society; through the exploration of totemic objects and relics created by different cultures. These reoccurring themes are made visible through his attempts to make sense of, and recognise different traces of life within the representations of these monuments, buildings, or altered landscapes. They each have their own history, whilst allowing the potential for new beginnings through their representations modified by Ellis. Through their modification, they appear to have been created by a new or alternative society, let they remain unspecific, leaving the viewer to determine their origin.  

Since 2016, Ellis has been working in specific locations using materials and imagery found in the locality: junk shops and antique stores across Europe and America. These adopted forms and techniques are distilled and reconstructed to create systemic drawings and constructions that make reference to narratives, symbols, and codes.  Ellis responds to the material intuitively: adding, adapting, and abstracting the information in order to develop a series of responses that suggest the appearance of another culture or society. 

A series of works are presented as paper constructions that abstract the drawings further. The paper objects appear as plaques or symbolic constructions that incorporate the photographic images alongside hand drawn patterns on the surface. The patterns are abstracted from maps from the locations of the photographic cards linking the relationship between the object and its reproduction. 

About Tim Ellis

Tim Ellis was born in Chester and currently lives and works in London. After undertaking his Fine Art degree at Liverpool John Moores, he then went on to study at Royal Academy Schools from 2006-2009. His Solo exhibitions include: Art Rotterdam with Van Nelle Fabriek, Fold Gallery, London, IAG, Hong Kong, Furini Contemporary, Rome, Italy, Spacex, Exeter, Primopiano, Lugano, Switzerland. Group exhibitions include: A History of Drawing at Camberwell Space, University of the Arts, London. The London Open, The Whitechapel Gallery, London, Long Ting (No Long Ting), Ron Mandos Gallery, Amsterdam, 100 Painters of Tomorrow, Thames and Hudson, New York 2014, Open 17, Venice, John Moores Painting Prize 26, The Walker, Liverpool, Newspeak, The Saatchi Gallery, London, 2010. Ellis also has work in the Saatchi Collection and The Glenfiddich Collection. He was artist in residence at Glenfiddich, Scotland in 2011. Ellis was the Programme Director of Horatio Jr from 2012 -15.