OX BLOOD: New Work by David Ellis

Opening Preview
Tuesday 3 March 2009 - 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Webb's is pleased to announce OX BLOOD, an exhibition by US based artist, David Ellis, whose dynamic art practice revolves around the inter-relationship between the visual, aural and kinetic. Following on from his third solo exhibition in New York at Roebling Hall in September 2008, Ellis will be heading to New Zealand for month long private residency which will culminate in a solo exhibition at Webb’s in March 2009.

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David Ellis' art is a sophisticated and succinct combination of his aptitude for percussion, graffiti art and animation. Working both independently and collaboratively, Ellis commonly invites sound artists, performers and musicians to interpret his motion paintings during exhibition.

Ellis' art practise continues to include installation and performance alongside the more traditional art form of the two-dimensional surface. His work is focused on the interpretation of sound and motion with his paintings being recorded in a form of digital time-lapse animation that Ellis refers to as "motion painting”.

Presenting a conglomeration of the audible and the visual along with movement, Ellis' works engage and enthral most of the senses with works such as Heap (2008) featuring a large pile of rubbish collected from Brooklyn and Manhattan. Paint cans, bottles, tinfoil and aluminium beams are among the items have been specifically wired up with electronic gadgets and recorded to provide the work with an idiosyncratic soundtrack.

Ellis' paintings contain an element of improvisation and he frequently works directly onto the walls of spaces, which are accessible to the public throughout his process. Webb’s anticipates that this kind of work will be included into his exhibition here.

A distinctive mass of swirling, billowing lines that Ellis calls "flow" repeatedly grace his motion paintings and drawings. Indeed, the recent Roebling Hall show in New York featured several works such as Drop Small and Flight Safety where the "flow" motif floats across collages of letters and manuals relating to the creation of the piece. His motion painting, Paint on Trucks in a World in Need of Love was recently exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. David Ellis has participated in numerous prestigious group shows throughout the world, including MoMA, P.S.1's Greater New York (2005), Conversation at Rice University (2006), Dawn's Early Light, Savannah College of Art and Design, (2006) Ensemble, Curated by Christian Marclay at the ICA (2007) in Philadelphia.

Webb's invites you to attend the preview of this much anticipated show and to be amongst the first to view David Ellis' work in New Zealand.

A sideline event at The Turnround on Friday 27th February will see David Ellis painting live from 10pm. 
The Turnaround, The Bacco Room, 53 Nelson Street, Auckland CBD. Tickets $20 on the door.

Thanks to Red Bull and Sacred Hill

For further information on David's work please view http://www.freshwatercatfish.org/ 

For video clips of live performances please view:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcQ3dZ6QPTk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQZVXxFUxts
http://www.woostercollective.com/2008/01/david_ellis_the_owl.html
http://www.woostercollective.com/2008/12/wooster_essentials_the_motion_paintings.html
http://hypebeast.com/2009/02/david-ellis-in-the-run-up/
http://www.nicespots.com/nicespots/webReels/index.php?webReelID=1198&webReelShareEmailID=11&webReelShareID=1419