FORM

LANGUAGE

FEMALENESS

DISCOVERY

American, Queens NY 1976

Ellen Jong is a mixed media artist whose practice is rooted in conceptual investigations often using methods/tools/objects of the vernacular to develop a syntax that is driven by a personal narrative.

Jong's new work in ink was inspired by a trip to Guilin, China in 2014 for a site-specific performance installation in Shanghai. She used the Chinese ink stick, her first writing tool, to mark the walls of the underground bunker space. The earliest artifacts of Chinese inks can be dated back to 12th century BC. Revisiting the past, ancient and personal, and de/reconstructing form and meaning, expand on her commitment to process. Her new work in ink applies 'the traditional Chinese ink stick' to contemparary sculptural ideas as a metaphor for our time. 

She is recognized for her earlier photographic works having had her first solo exhibition with Vice Magazine in 2000, and winner of Surface Magazine's Avant Guardian in 2002. She worked as a commercial photographer before the publication of her first monograph Pees On Earth by Miss Rosen Edition/powerhouse Books in 2006. Her second photographic monograph, Getting To Know My Husband's Cock (Self Published 2010) was reviewed in The New Yorker by acclaimed collector and critic Vince Aletti, "It's her unapologetic lust that comes across most appealing here." The book was later included in aperture books', "DIY Photo Book Manual and Manifesto" by Bruno Ceschel.

In 2002, she was the principal curator and project coordinator for the installation of 18 concept guest rooms in the inaugeration of The Creek Hotel South Beach Signature Series during Art Basel Miami Beach 2002. Artists included Jose Parla, Marina Zurkow, Oliver Lutz and Kenzo Minami. Her other curatorial projects for special events included artists Pia Camil, Nicole Wittenberg, Andrea Mary Marshall and John Gordon Gauld.

She is the creator of the concept brand PEE'NESS ENVY and the PEE'NESS ENVY 'GIRL' cap

She lived and worked between the LES and Upstate NY. Now she lives in LA. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Solo Show

2015 Sea Bounds, Basement 6 Collective Space, Shanghai, China

2012 Invisible Line, Allegra LaViola Gallery NY

2000 I.C.U.P, Vice Magazine Flagship Store, NY

Group Show

2019 EVERY WOMAN BIENNIAL, LaMaMa Galleria NY

2018 Current: Abortion curated by Barbara Zucker, A.I.R. Gallery NY

2016 The Female Gaze curated by Indira Cesarine, Untitled Space, NY

2015 I Never Could Talk To You, with Bazaar Teens, City Bird Gallery, NY

2014 XXX curated by Mathieu Borysevicz, Bank MABSociety Gallery, Shanghai, China

2011 Self-Publish Be Happy curated by Bruno Ceschel, Micamera Milan, Italy

2011 Art of Affection curated by Caroll Taveras, F.L.O.A.T. Gallery, NY

2009 The Vice Photo Show, Le Lieu Unique, Nantes, FR

2006 Toy Box with White Box, Robert Miller Gallery, NY

2006 Speed Limit, LMCC’s Redhead Gallery, NY

2005 Pretend Friendly curated by Alfredo Martinez, the:artist:network, NY

Art Fairs

2017 Milk and Night curated by Coco Dolle, Spring Break Art Fair NY

2016 Bizarre Teens, Spring Break Art Fair NY

2010 Empire State of Mind, Staldgade 38, Copenhagen Photo Festival, Copenhagen, DK

2009 ArtLog/Manish Vora presents, Pulse Art Fair, Miami, FL

2009 Scope Art Fair, Marketplace, Miami, FL

2008 The New York Photo Festival, DUMBO NY

2005 Experiments at Scope NY, Flatotel Hotel, NY

2005 Open Eat, Curator, Photo NY

SPECIAL PARTICIPATION

2013 The Watermill Center Summer Benefit, The Watermill Center, NY

2013 Whitney Art Party, The Whitney Museum of Contemporary Art, NY

2012 Book presentation, The Hole Gallery Bookshop, NY

2011 MiCamera Bookshop, Self Publish Be Naughty, Milan Italy

2010 Crone Benefit, Gavin Brown Enterprise, NY

REVIEWS

Carlo McCormick, Photograph Magazine July 2012

Vince Aletti, The New Yorker June 2012

Sean O’Hagan, On Photography, The Guardian July 25, 2012

Bruno Ceschel, Foam Magazine Issue #29 Oct 2011

Alec Soth’s Best Photo Books of 2010, 2010

PUBLISHED WORKS/SITATIONS

2015 Self Publish Be Happy by Bruno Ceschel, Aperture Books, NY

2012 Serpent on the Mount, Self-Published proof, NY

2011 Self Publish Be Naughty, Self-Publish Be Happy Publishing, London

2010 Getting To Know My Husband’s Cock, Self-Published, NY (monograph)

2009 Public Panics: Problematic Bodies in Social Places, Adam Eldridge, London UK

2007 Vice Photo Book, Vice Magazine Publishing, NY

2006 Pees On Earth, Miss Rosen Edition/powerHouse Books, NY (monograph)