Ellen George

A Chinese artist born on Galveston Island in 1957, Ellen George’s earliest memories are visions of tiny aquatic life, teeming in drops of Gulf water collected and seen under the microscope in her parent’s laboratory. Motility, clustering, translucency, and shift of scale of these microscopic animals and plants inform her work to this day.  

Ellen’s Taiji practice supports intense concentration and internal listening that conveys to her studio practice. Drawing the first silverpoint line, she listens in silence, reacting along a continuum of considerations in paint and line, until a harmony is realized. Forms emerge through the patient process of layering and micro-adjustments. As she breathes through the brush, there is expansion and circularity. The work becomes a coalescence of environment and interior as the image comes to life.  

Ellen’s work has been exhibited at the Tacoma Art Museum, Bellevue Arts Museum, Museum of Contemporary Craft (Portland, OR), Morris Graves Museum of Art (Eureka, CA) and Whatcom Museum of Art (Bellingham, WA). A member of Nine Gallery (housed in Blue Sky Gallery Portland, OR), Ellen has created numerous installation exhibitions for that space. Her work is included in the collections of 4Culture and King County Public Art, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University, Oregon Health and Science University, Oregon State University Hatfield Marine Science Center, Tacoma Art Museum, Portland Art Museum, Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation and the Microsoft Collection.  

PDX CONTEMPORARY ART in Portland has represented Ellen George since 2002, presenting ten solo shows of her work to date.