Ellie Fritz, Sundial Segments, 2022
Ink, pastel and embossing on paper
44 x 30 inches (framed)
Ellie Fritz – Origins & Echos
Exhibition Dates
May 24 to June 30, 2022
K. Imperial Fine Art is pleased to present an exhibition of works by Ellie Fritz titled Origins & Echos, on view May 24 through June 30, 2022, in San Francisco at 49 Geary Street, Suite 525. The gallery is open by appointment only–please contact kimperialfineart@me.com or 415-277-7230.
The public is invited to the opening reception on Saturday, June 4, from 3pm to 5pm.
Ellie Fritz, Rust Magnitudes, 2022
Ink, acrylic and embossing on paper
30 x 22 inches (framed)
Ellie Fritz is an interdisciplinary artist whose mixed media artworks employ a variety of influences, approaches, materials, and techniques. “These hybrid works evolve from a dialogue between painting and printmaking,” says Fritz. “Painting introduces gesture and form, while collage imprints positive and negative space. The final stage of embossing introduces conversations between thick and thin, transparent and opaque, soft and hard, light and dark.”
Expanding on this notion of the interplay between painting and collage, Fritz sees the printing press as a tool for gesture and as an instrument for constructing and deconstructing. Collage has a unique appeal to the artist because it has an immediate and physical way of applying painterly notions of gesture in a kinesthetic fashion.
Ellie Fritz
Morphic Topographies #10, 2021
Ink and embossing on canvas, on paper
30 x 22 inches (framed)
Origins & Echos is more than just a name for this exhibition. It also embodies how the artist views her work and its progression through time. The show demonstrates the evolution of her practice and how different series have simultaneously influenced each other. Fritz states that this develops naturally as her practice is rooted in play, process, experimentation, and trial and error. That sense of experimentation brings about new growth and themes which mutate into new bodies of work.
For example, this exhibition features works in color which is new territory for the artist who has established her process with more monochromatic inclinations. Fritz was originally drawn to monochrome compositions because working in one color allowed the form to be at the forefront of the work. Color can imbue an emotional aspect into different artworks. While initially a deterrent, the artist leaned into this and began incorporating color with earth tones and indigo. These colors have a certain ubiquity that allowed for broad emotional meaning to be applied to the pieces. This allows for new growth to emerge visually while staying true to the intentions that guided her monochromatic works.
Ellie Fritz, Catch & Release #30, 2022
Ink, acrylic and embossing on paper
(Mounted on wood panel)
44 x 30 inches
Ellie Fritz is both an undergraduate and graduate alumni of the San Francisco Arts Institute, and the school’s well-known interdisciplinary approach heavily influenced her creative process. While the artist originally started as a painter she became more drawn to printmaking, with its capacity for multiplicity and transferal of marks. As Fritz began to experiment more with printing and painting together, she developed a highly attuned acuity for the different materials at her disposal and how they would perform in different processes. As a result, her artworks showcase an undeniably fascinating and energized communication between marks, shapes, materials, textures, and layers.
Ellie Fritz, photo by Susie Shapira
Ellie Fritz lives and works in Marin County, California. She has exhibited her work at Sardine, Brooklyn, New York; Art on Paper, New York and the Vulcan Materials Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama; as well as the Diego Rivera and Swell Galleries at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), Mission Art Center, Herbst Pavilion, and Art Explosion, in San Francisco, California. Fritz completed both her BFA (2004) and MFA (2008) at SFAI and has received several honors, including the Spring Show Award (2004), and a Teaching Assistantship (2008), both at SFAI. In 2008, Fritz was an artist-in-residence at KALA Art Institute and recently completed her stay as the 2019 artist-inresidence at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art (MarinMOCA). She was featured in Studio Visit Magazine in 2010 and has taught through extension programs in San Francisco, including ACE at the San Francisco Art Institute.
K. Imperial Fine Art is open by appointment only. For more information or to make an appointment please contact kimperialfineart@me.com or 415-277-7230.
Gallery Hours and Inquiries
K. Imperial Fine Art
49 Geary Street, Suite 525
San Francisco, CA 94108
By appointment only, for now, please contact:
kimperialfineart@me.com
(415) 277-7230