Darrel Ellis
Darrel Ellis
Darrel Ellis’s conceptual paintings, photographs and drawings created a radical approach to portraiture and photography, depicting intimate views of friends, family, and self-portraiture, often filtered through the work other photographers, including his deceased father. Early work – in multi-media materials on paper, or acrylic on canvas – present confident and lively scenes of the Ellis family life, while later photography-based work is increasingly experimental and elegiac. Ellis’s life was tragically cut short by AIDS-related causes in 1992 at age 33.
b. 1958, Bronx, NY–d. 1992, Brooklyn, NY.
Image details: Darrel Ellis, Self-Portrait after Photograph by Robert Mapplethorpe, ca. 1989, Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 42 inches. Photo credit: Christopher Burke (above and previous page).
Darrel Ellis, Untitled (Uncle Joseph Tansle), ca. 1989–91, Gelatin silver print, 11 x 14 inches. Photo credit: Christopher Burke.
Darrel Ellis, Untitled (Uncle Joseph Tansle), ca. 1989-91, Ink, wash and graphite on paper, 14 1/2 x 22 inches. Photo credit: Adam Reich.
Darrel Ellis, Untitled (Laure and Mother), ca. 1989–91, Gelatin silver print, 20 1/8 x 17 5/8 inches. Photo credit: Christopher Burke.
Darrel Ellis, The Kiss, 1990, Gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches. Photo credit: Adam Reich.
Darrel Ellis, Untitled (Grandfather James Harrison), 1990, Gelatin silver print, 11 x 14 inches. Photo credit: Christopher Burke.
Darrel Ellis, Untitled (Grandmother Lillian Ellis), ca. 1989–91, Ink, wash, and graphite on paper, 13 x 14 inches. Photo credit: Adam Reich.
Darrel Ellis, Untitled (Self-Portrait), ca. 1990–91, Ink and wash on paper, 25 x 26 inches. Photo credit: Adam Reich.
Darrel Ellis, Self-Portrait, 1981, Mixed media, 15 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches. Photo credit: Christopher Burke.
Darrel Ellis, Untitled (Laure and Mother in Grass), ca. 1988–91, Ink on vellum, 16 x 20 inches. Photo credit: Adam Reich.
Darrel Ellis, Untitled (Self-portrait), Ink, pen, and acrylic on paper, 23 x 15 inches. Photo credit: Adam Reich.
Darrel Ellis, Untitled (Diptych), ca. 1983–85, Silkscreen and acrylic on canvas, 14 x 25 inches. Photo credit: Adam Reich.
Darrel Ellis, Untitled (Self-Portrait), ca. 1990–92, Ink and wash on paper prepared with textured ground, 24 1/2 x 17 inches. Photo credit: Adam Reich.
Darrel Ellis, Untitled (Self-Portrait after Allen Frame Photograph), ca. 1990–91, Acrylic on canvas, 61 7/8 x 43 1/2 inches. Photo credit: Adam Reich.
FRIEZE May 2023 by John Keene
ANOTHER May 2023 by Miss Rosen
PHOTOGRAPH January 2023 by Mark Alice Durant
BMOREART January 2023 by Laurence Ross
ARTNEWS December 2022 by Alex Greenberger
THE NEW YORK TIMES September 2022 by Will Heinrich
APARTEMENTO Summer 2022 by Allen Frame
HYPERALLERGIC December 2021 by Megan N. Liberty
THE NEW YORKER by December 2021 by Chris Wiley
THE NEW YORK TIMES May 2021 by Will Heinrich
FRIEZE May 2021 by Shiv Kotecha
CREATIVE BOOM May 2021 by Katy Cowan
POZ May 2021 by Trenton Straube