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This Is What It Is To Be Happy, A Marathon Reading of The Bell Jar. Curated by Catherine Spino, with authors Sophia June, Simona Blatt, Nicole Treska, Ellen Frances, Chloe Pigeon, and many more. 5pm - 1am, Nightclub101, East Village, New York, NY
Ellen Frances is an American artist and writer based in New York City. Her multidisciplinary practice encompasses painting, poetry, essays, historical research, movement, photography, sound, and design. She is classically trained in both the Balanchine and classical dance repertoires which inspire her use of 19th century pantomime.
Her work has been presented at Mana Contemporary, The Hole Gallery, VOLTA Art Fair, Sotheby’s Institute, Anthology Film Archives, Yeats Society Thoor Ballylee (Ireland), and Tönnheim Gallery (Spain). Her work has been featured in the New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, Art Observed, WideWalls, CultBytes, and WhiteHot Magazine.
In 2023, Ellen was selected as the Yeats Society Artist-in-Residence at Thoor Ballylee, W. B. Yeats’s 15th-century tower home in County Galway, Ireland, as part of the centenary celebrations marking his Nobel Prize in Literature. In 2026, Ellen was an artist-in-residence at the Library Residency in Greece, in conjunction with Utrecht University, Greece in USA, European Research Council, and the Greek Ministry of Culture.
Her writing has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail and The Art Newspaper. She is represented by Calvert Morgan and Annie DeWitt at Enliven Endeavors.
For professional inquiries or work samples please use the contact form.
CV
GROUP SHOWS
2026 Americas (American Artists) Tonnheim Gallery, Madrid Spain
2025 Generative Alterities, Opening Gallery, New York, NY — Curated by Sozita Goudouna
2024 Galeria Nueva, Madrid, Spain
2024 Voted the Best, The Stable Art Gallery, Woodstock, NY — Curated by Matt Jones
2023 Dissolvement, Wadström Tönnheim Gallery, New York, NY
2023 Figuration, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ
2023 VOLTA Art Fair, Featured Artist with Wadström Tönnheim Gallery, New York, NY
SOLO SHOWS
2024 Chaos Theory, Tönnheim Gallery, Madrid, Spain — Available via Artsy
2024 Works on Paper, The Java Project Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2023 Open Studio, Thoor Ballylee, Gort, Ireland
PERFORMANCE ART
2024 I Ought To Call It Darkling (with movement), Beckett’s Salon with Penny Arcade and others, New York, NY
2024 I Ought To Call It Darkling, Powerhouse Arena, Brooklyn, NY
2024 Quiet & Control, VOLTA International Art Fair × Sotheby’s Institute, New York, NY
2023 Crveni Pijetao (Red Rooster), Beckett’s TENSE Magazine New York, NY
2023 A Thousand Twangling Instruments, The Hole Gallery, New York, NY
2023 Children of Lir, Sailing to Byzantium, Wild Swans, Killruddery Estate, Wicklow, Ireland
2023 Sailing to Byzantium, Yeats Society Thoor Ballylee, Galway, Ireland
2023 Psyche, Ciclicalities & A Walker in the City (Cityscapes), VOLTA Art Fair with Wadström Tönnheim Gallery, New York, NY
2023 Tastiera Per Luce, Beckett’s Salon, New York, NY
2023 Walker in the City (Cityscapes) (with Frederic Tuten), Beckett’s Salon, New York, NY
2023 Little Bird, Broken Wing, Mozart’s Dead Starling, Literary Salon, New York, NY
2023 Vocalise, Beckett’s Salon, New York, NY
READINGS
2026 This Is What It Is To Be Happy, A Curated Marathon Reading of The Bell Jar, Nightclub101, East Village, New York, NY
2024 I Ought To Call It Darkling, Powerhouse Arena, Brooklyn, NY
FILMS
2014 Trophy Tape (with Jason LesCalleet), Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY
2014 Very Beautiful Woman / When I Leave This Place feat. Tao Lin (Shorts Program) Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY
PRESS
"» AO ARTIST-ON-ARTIST INTERVIEW: Maria Kreyn and Ellen Frances - AO Art Observed". Retrieved 2025-05-07.
Frances, Ellen (2023-04-01). "Beckett Rosset with Ellen Frances". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 2024-06-09.
"Volta New York 2023 Brings Focus on Female Artists | Widewalls". www.widewalls.ch. Retrieved 2024-06-09.
Ekstrand, Anna Mikaela (2023-05-21). "Claudia Doring Baez and Ellen Frances 1950s Nostalgia". Cultbytes. Retrieved 2024-06-09.
"Volta New York 2023 Brings Focus on Female Artists | Widewalls". www.widewalls.ch. Retrieved 2024-06-09.
"CHAOS THEORY". Artsy. Retrieved 2024-06-09.
"Artists To Watch: Ellen Frances, Angela China & Matias Di Carlo at Wadström Tönnheim's Armory Week Pop-up". Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art. Retrieved 2025-05-07.
Vrubel, Anfisa (November 21, 2023). "AO Artist on Artist Interview". Art Observed. Retrieved June 09, 2024.
"Events". Thoor Ballylee. 2015-02-05. Retrieved 2024-06-09.
"ELLEN FRANCES - ONE ARTIST'S STAY AT KILLRUDDERY". Killruddery House. 2023-09-29. Retrieved 2024-06-09.
Vadukul, Alex (2023-04-01). "The Last Days of Beckett's, a Smoky New York Literary Salon". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-06-09.
Nanavati, Daniel (2023-07-22). "NYC Fairs: Frieze, Volta, 1-54 and Future Fair - New Art Examiner". Retrieved 2025-05-07.
Westall, Mark (2024-08-25). "VOLTA New York 2024 #Preview". FAD Magazine. Retrieved 2025-05-07.
"Sotheby's Institute Hosts Vibrant Evening at VOLTA New York 2024". Sotheby's Institute of Art. Retrieved 2025-05-07.
HTML GIANT Old Theme Retrieved 2025-05-07.
Reading Series: Tao Lin & Ellen Frances Huffington Post 2014. Retrieved 2025-05-07.
PUBLISHED ARTICLES
2023 “Beckett Rosset in conversation with Ellen Frances on Underground Theater” The Brooklyn Rail, April 1, 2023.
2022 “Works by Women Take the Lead in Historic Sotheby’s Evening Auction.“ The Art Newspaper, May 17, 2022.
2022 “Disgraced Dealer Douglas Chrismas Ordered to Repay $14.2m in Profits After FBI Arrest.“ The Art Newspaper, May 10, 2022.
2022 “Doug Aitken’s New 360-degree Video Looks to the Horizon, With a Chorus of AI Voices.“ The Art Newspaper, April 26, 2022.
2022 “As His Gallery Marks A Decade in Business, New York Dealer Hong Gyu Shin Puts His Collection On View.“ The Art Newspaper, March 4, 2022.
2022 “Participation Builds Beauty at Derek Weisberg's Trotter & Sholer Show” WhiteHot Magazine, September 19, 2022.
2022 “In the Hamptons, a Collaborative Exhibition Aims to Move Glass Art Into the Mainstream.“ The Art Newspaper, June 10, 2022.
2021 “Three Exhibitions to See in New York this Weekend.“ The Art Newspaper, November 11, 2021.
2021 “Three Exhibitions to See in New York this Weekend.“ The Art Newspaper, November 9, 2021.
2021 "Back to the Beginning: Author and Art Critic Frederic Tuten Will Have His First Solo Show in the Hamptons." The Art Newspaper, June 21, 2021.
APPEARANCES
2025 Leica Cameras in store and online campaign shot by Jason Roman
2024 Samantha Pleet Fall/Winter Women’s Wear Campaign
DANCE TRAINING AND PERFORMANCES
American Ballet Theater Summer Training, Pacific Northwest Ballet Summer Training, Royal Winnipeg Ballet Summer Training, HARID Conservatory Year-round, State Ballet of Missouri School Year-round
Power Surge, Philip Glass; Choreography Karole Armitage, Nutcracker, Corps de Ballet, Arpino, The Joffrey Ballet, Coppélia, Corps de Ballet, Todd Bolender, Kansas City Ballet, Four Temperaments Balanchine Trust, Kansas City Ballet, Serenade, Corps de Ballet, Balanchine Trust, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, Chorus, Starlight Amphitheater
Coaching / Master Teachers in ballet, jazz and pantomime: Todd Bolender, Bonnie Mathis, Suzanne Farrell, Galina Yordanova, William Whitener, Nicole Fosse, Ann Reinking