Generations: Opaque Mirrors of Beauty
Saint Kate, the Arts Hotel
139 East Kilbourn
Milwaukee, WI
On view: October 18, 2024 – January12, 2025
Curated by Juelle Daley, this exhibition focuses on how two Midwestern figurative painters, Ellen Holtzblatt and Shane-Jahi Jackson, memorialize and document those they hold dear without idealizing portraits. Like the renowned portraitist Alice Neel, they are unafraid to reveal the ambivalence, conflicts, tenderness, and joy of the institution of family. Transfixed by a desire to represent the inner contours of their subjects, the painters use the act of painting in different ways as a jumping-off point to explore the rawness of their relationship with the sitters. Each painting is an unveiling of truths, disappointments, depictions of the unsaid, and the thorny topic of unconditional love within families.
dialogue: OUTLOUD!
Evanston Art Center
1717 Central Street
Evanston, IL
https://www.evanstonartcenter.org/exhibitions/dialogue-chicago-out-loud
On view: October 12 – November 6, 2024
Midwest Lands
Freeport Art Museum
121 N. Harlem Avenue
Freeport, IL
https://www.freeportartmuseum.com/exhibitions-index
On view: September 6 – October 12, 2024
Opening Reception: Friday September 6, 2024, 5 – 7 pm, with artist talk from 4 – 5 pm
Join us on Friday, September 6th, from 5-7 PM for the opening of the Midwest Lands Exhibition at the Freeport Art Museum. This unique visual and literary art invitational focuses on farmland, rural landscapes, and the aesthetics, psychological, and emotional content of these themes.The exhibition features works by artists Dan Brinkmeier, Barry Roal Carlsen, Ellen Holtzblatt, Tom Linden, Stuart Roddy, and Mark Weller. Their pieces capture the beauty and complexity of rural life.
Inside // Outside
Stasias Gallery
44 E Cedar St
Chicago, IL
https://www.stasiasgallery.com/
On view: March 2 – March 28, 2024
Opening Reception: Saturday March 2, 2024, 6 – 10 pm
Inside // Outside features work by Chicago-based artists Gwen Yen Chiu, Ellen Holtzblatt, Dale Pesmen, Sheri Rush, and Paarshav Shah. The show highlights monochromatic black-and-white works that straddle the line between abstraction and representation.
25th International Open
Woman Made Gallery
1332 S Halsted St
Chicago, IL
On view: March 2 – 30, 2024
Opening Reception: March 2, 2024, 4 – 7 pm
Gallery Hours:
Thursday through Sunday, noon – 5 pm
Vestiges of the Tide
Miller Art Museum
107 S 4th Ave
Sturgeon Bay, WI
https://millerartmuseum.org/news
On view: January 20 – April 6, 2024
Museum Hours:
Monday 10 am – 7 pm
Tuesday through Saturday 10 am – 5 pm
Join us on Friday, March 1, 2024 starting at 4pm for a new installment of 'The Studio Door' with featured artists Mary Porterfield and Ellen Holtzblatt. Guests are invited to stay for an artist reception following the conversation in celebration of the museum's newest exhibition, "Vestiges of the Tide" from 5:30 – 7pm. The events are free and open to the public.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼 𝗗𝗼𝗼𝗿 | 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝟭, 𝟰 – 𝟱𝗽𝗺
Join Curator Helen del Guidice in conversation with artists Mary Porterfield and Ellen Holtzblatt for an engaging discussion exploring their careers, artistic practices, and the development of their two-person exhibit, "Vestiges of the Tide." An audience Q&A will follow.
𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 | 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝟭, 𝟱:𝟯𝟬 – 𝟳𝗽𝗺
𝙑𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙜𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙏𝙞𝙙𝙚 features drawings and paintings by Chicago-based artists Mary Porterfield and Ellen Holtzblatt. Porterfield works in the medical field as an occupational therapist and is also a talented portraitist committed to rendering her elderly, infirm subjects with images that address recurring struggles in healthcare. In tandem with Porterfield, Ellen Holtzblatt presents works from her Song of Songs series, a collection of portraits of her elderly mother that convey that love, desire, and the need for human contact are universal. Together, the two create an emotionally charged exhibit that offers viewers a powerful, poetic experience.
Vestiges of the Tide
Miller Art Museum
107 S. 4th Avenue
Sturgeon Bay, WI
January 20 to April 6,2024
Opening reception: :March 1, 2024
October 30 – November 20, 2023
Opening Reception: November 1, 3:30 pm
Gallery Hours:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday 10 am – 5 pm
Tuesday, Thursday 11 am – 5 pm
Saturday 11 am – 2 pm
SXU Gallery
St. Xavier University
3700 W 103rd Street
Chicago, IL
https://www.sxu.edu/academics/clae/liberal-arts-and-humanities-division/art-design/exhibits.aspx
image: The Earth Was Wild and Waste, oil on panel, 36" x 48"
June 11 – July 16, 2023
Opening Reception: October 5, 2023, 5 – 8 pm
Koehnline Museum of Art
1600 Golf Road
Des Plaines, IL
image: Tazria, woodcut on Japanese paper
June 24 – July 10, 2023
Opening Reception: June 24, 2023, 6 – 10 pm
Anysquared Projects
Agitator Gallery
3851 W Fullerton
Chicago, IL
image: The Wind Passes Over It and It Is Gone, oil on linen mounted on panel, 40" x 60"
Governors State University: April 12 to May 23
Governors State University, Center for Performing Arts, 1 University Dr, University Park, IL
The members of the Jewish Artists Collective Chicago, in collaboration with the Jewish Community Centers of Chicago, have created an exhibition titled, "Strings of Resilience: A Tribute to Violins of Hope," to commemorate the Violins of Hope events. The eight visual artists: Berit Engen, Alan Hobscheid, Ellen Holtzblatt, Dorit Jordan Dotan, Judith Joseph, Carol Lezberg Neiger, Beth Shadur and Jane Weintraub, , responded to the violins in the collection and the accompanying stories to testify to the strength of spirit of the musicians who played these violins and loved their instruments and their art. The range of media in the artwork includes watercolor, tapestry, woodcut, oil paint, ink drawing, multi-media sculpture, and digital media.
Image: Ellen Holtzblatt, Silent, 39" x 25", ink on Japanese paper
19th Annual Regional Juried Exhibition
May 6 to July 29, 2023
Opening Reception: May 6, 2023, 5 pm
Freeport Art Museum
121 N. Harlem Avenue
Freeport, IL
image: I Sought the One I Love, oil on linen mounted on panel, 48" x 36"
April 24 - May 17, 2023
Christopher Art Gallery
Prairie State College
202 South Halsted Street
Chicago Heights, IL
image: Bereshit 6:11, woodcut on Japanese paper, 7.5" x 14"
April 1, 2023
4 to 7 pm
Space 900 Gallery
816 Dempster Street
Evanston, IL
Please join me for the opening reception for my exhibit, A World Without Time. The works that are included in this exhibit are deeply personal, reflecting the realities of caring for and my evolving relationship my 99 year-old mother. I find myself also searching for my own place in the time/space continuum as a 66 year-old woman artist/daughter/mother/soon to be grandmother.
In the exhibit, A World Without Time, Ellen Holtzblatt reflects on caring for her 99 year-old mother, as she also contemplates her own movement through the time/space continuum as a woman/artist/daughter/mother/soon to be grandmother. Holtzblatt’s paintings and drawings explore the connections between figure, place, and time.
April 1 – April 30, 2023
Opening Reception: 4/1 4–7 pm
Closing Reception: 4/30 2–5 pm
Gallery Hours:
Friday and Saturday 12–4 pm
Space 900 Gallery
816 Dempster Street
Evanston, IL
image: Garden at Low Tide, oil on linen, 48" x 84"
2-person show with artists Ellen Holtzblatt and Mary Porterfield, curated by Beth Shadur
January 3 to February 2, 2023
Christopher Gallery
Prairie State College
202 S Halsted Street
Chicago, IL
image: My Own One, oil on linen panel, 8" x 8"
Curated by Jae Green and Marisa Miles
June 11 – July 16, 2022
Woman Made Gallery
2150 . Canalport Avenue, 4A-3
Chicago, IL
Generations is an exhibition celebrating the past and envisioning the future of WMG and its values. Through this exhibition, WMG asked alumnae artists to reflect back upon the importance of feminist art space in their art practices, careers and relationships. Art in this exhibition speaks of motherhood and the right to choice, the nuances of intersectional thought and ways in which women hold hands to build each other up. A deep dive into the gallery’s past arrived up to moments of witness into activism, rebellion, the need for rest and the abundance of wealth when it comes to community and connections.
Forty-one alumni artists have come together in this exhibition to build a narrative of support, evolution, courage and solidarity.
image: As One That Found Peace, ink on Japanese paper, 25" x 39"
Thursday, June 3, 2021 at 6 pm
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/our-muses-art-and-the-family-archive-tickets-155857681521
https://chicagoartistscoalition.org/events/translucent-beauty-and-other-guardians
Join us for a conversation with HATCH artists, Ellen Holtzblatt, Juan Molina Hernandez and invited artist Kalen Na'il Roach.
What happens when artists plunge into the familial sphere as a source of inspiration and as content for their art practice? This event is associated with the exhibit Translucent Beauty and Other Guardians on view at the Chicago Artist Coalition until June 16, 2021 curated by Juelle Daley with artists, Ellen Holtzblatt and Juan Molina Hernández.
Ellen Holtzblatt, Kalen Na'il Roach and Juan Molina Hernandez will discuss their art practice and the use of family members as content and inspiration for their artwork. Do we ever fully know them? They also lay bare the complexities of parenthood and how one manifests “taking care” when executed by adult children. This inability to fully “see through” the prism of familial identity is explored and compelled the artists to create portraiture as renditions or glimpses of the sitter’s interiority. The artists seem to ask, what do I see when I look at you? I see myself, I see nothing, I see vulnerability and fragility at the same time as resilience. This intersection results in unique portraits of mothers, fathers, nephews, cousins, grandparents who become mirrors of a self that lurks for clues and possible resemblance.
This event is also co-organized with the Center for Black Diaspora and the Center for Latino Research.
Through June 16, 2021
Translucent Beauty and other Guardians is a meditation on familial relationships, its fault lines, frictions and the ferocious love that can emerge during intimate times spent together.
These elements form the axis around which the paintings, drawings and photographs of the artists, Ellen Holtzblatt and Juan Molina Hernández orbit. They also lay bare the complexities of parenthood and how one manifests “taking care” when executed by adult children. The artists create environments of safety and protective landscapes that form as guardians to watch over family members. Both artists become the Other Guardians of their family narratives with images imbued with dignity and reverence but devoid idolatry or glorification. In doing so, tenderness and implicit familial messiness come together like a floral arrangement crafted to honor, protect and make reproachments whether the subjects are still among the living or dead.
Chicago Artists Coalition
2130 W Fulton
Chicago, IL
Open Wednesdays 10-2 and Fridays 3-7 by appointment
https://chicagoartistscoalition.org/events/translucent-beauty-and-other-guardians
Image (from left to right): Ellen Holtzblatt, My Beloved, 60 “ x 30”, oil on linen, 2019 ; Juan Molina Hernández, mi otro yo (my other me), dimensions vary, 2020
Is This Real? is a 2-person exhibition featuring landscape and figurative paintings and drawings by Ellen Holtzblatt and imaginative, surreal gouache paintings and sculptures by Kathy Weaver.
Through her paintings and drawings, Ellen Holtzblatt explores the profound connections between the physical and spiritual world. Kathy Weaver uses her imagination fired by buried memories and a love of technology to comment on the status quo. Both artists are on a journey to find meaningful coincidence that lead to a deeper connection with the universe.
Gallery Studio Oh
4839 N Damen
Chicago, IL
https://www.facebook.com/events/486227962742997/
image: For Reiko 6, ink on paper, 5.5" x 9"
A group exhibition featuring new works by HATCH 2019-2020 residents at @cacoalition, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗙𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗮 𝗧𝗼𝘀𝗶, 𝗝𝘂𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘆, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲 𝗞𝗼𝗰𝗵, this exhibition will be on view from March 19, 2021 through April 29, 2021.
Survey 2 asks the twelve artists to reflect on and share the distinct ways they relate to time: How do you manifest the connection between process and object, both enduring and ephemeral? With a deep look into the process and methods of each artist-in-residence, the exhibition is a survey of the different scales at which time is perceived, seized, and reshaped through diverse artistic practices.
Chicago Artists Coalition
2130 W Fulton
Chicago, IL
An online exhibition experience curated by Sergio Gomez exploring many aspects of the isolation and confinement we have all experienced since 2020. Visit the show at https://www.sergiogomezcurates.net
The exhibition is sponsored by @artnxtlevel and @artplacer.app
image: Until the Day Breathe, ink on Japanese paper, 39" x 25"
Springboard Art Center
1910 W North Avenue
Chicago, IL
Opening Reception: Friday April 9 and Saturday April 10
by appointment, reserve a ticket
image: After Light Darkness Rose 2, oil on paper mounted on panel, 10" x 8"
Evanston + Vicinity Biennial
Evanston Art Center
1717 Central Street
Evanston, IL
January 16 to February 14, 2021
https://www.evanstonartcenter.org/exhibitions/2021-evanston-vicinity-biennial
image: As Fierce As Death, oil on linen, 16" x 16"
Open Studio
Cornelia Arts Building
1800 W Cornelia Avenue, Chicago
March 6, 6 to 10 pm
Please visit me in studio #116. Two floors of art, wine and food!
https://www.corneliaartsbuilding.com/2020/02/01/march-2020-cornelia-arts-building-open-studios/
photograph of my studio by Jordan Scott
Life in Progress
Hairpin Arts Center
2810 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago
Opening reception: Saturday, March 7, 2020 6:30 to 10:30 pm
image: My Beloved, oil on linen, 60" x 30"
i am. an immigrant
Curated by Dorit Jordan Dotan
The Institut fur Alles Mogliche, Berlin, Germany
Opening Reception, March 5, 18:30 - 21:00
Gallery talk March 8, 10:45-12:00
https://www.facebook.com/events/772255633271911/
image: Bereshit 6:11, woodcut on Japanese paper, 7.5" x 14"
I am excited to announce that I am accepted as a HATCH Resident at the Chicago Artists Coalition! The program is an incubator for three resident curators and twelve resident artists to collaborate, develop artistic practices, exchange ideas, and exhibit work. Stay tuned for more news about upcoming exhibits and programs! https://chicagoartistscoalition.org/residencies/hatch-projects
September 12, 2019 to June 30, 2020
Opening Reception: September 12, 2019, 5:30 to 7:30 pm / Program 6:30 pm
Register
Dr. Bernard Heller Museum - Jewish Institute of Religion
Hebrew Union College
One West Fourth Street
New York, NY
Seventy artists explore human connections shaped by genetics, proximity, interests, and shared destiny in “Relative Relations,” on view at the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum at HUC-JIR/New York through June 2020.
Curator Laura Kruger explains, “This exhibition highlights the connections that provide for the amazing melding of the human race, an ever-widening network of interests, talents, commitment, and broadening diversity.
September 23, 2019 to January 19, 2020
Opening Reception: Monday, September 23, 2019 | 5:30 to 8:00 pm
RESERVE BY SEPTEMBER 13
Artist Talk: The Journey
Sunday, October 27, 2019 | 12:30 pm
Artist Talk: Stories That Move Us
Thursday, January 9, 2020 | 6:30 pm
Spertus Institute
610 S. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL
Four contemporary artists—Linda Robinson Gordon, Ellen Holtzblatt, Lilach Schrag, and Michelle Stone—explore the relationship between the physical and spiritual. Works include drawings, paintings, sculptures, and videos.
August 22 to September 27, 2019
Opening Reception: Friday, September 6, 6-9 pm
Gallery Studio Oh!
4839 N. Damen Avenue
Chicago, IL
Featuring: Julie R. Amrany, Walter Fydryck, Luis Guzman, Ellen Holtzblatt, Oscar Joyo, Lea Basile Lazarus, Beatriz Ledesma, Tom Megalis, Holly Meyers, Bryan Northup, Eileen Meindl O’Hagan, Raul Pizarro, Lee Rainboth, Jeffrey Repko, Howard Russo, Gene Skala, Kevin Slattery, Carol Stitzer, Kasia Szczesniewski, Juliann Wang
March 12 to May 14
Opening reception: March 23, 2018, 5 - 7 pm
Gallery talk: March 26, noon
Fermilab Art Gallery
Kirk Road and Pine Street
Batavia, IL
The art gallery is open to the public Monday to Friday, 8am to 4:30 pm. Sign in at the reception desk in Wilson Hall atrium.
In A Passing Day: Land and Light, Ellen Holtzblatt's art explores the connection between the physical and the spiritual – the memories of the body that reside in the soul. Her recent landscape paintings of the Midwestern prairie and the Icelandic tundra become an allegory for psyche and emotion, as she considers place and how one’s surroundings impact feelings and thoughts – seeking lands that seem beyond the control of humans.
February 12, 2018 to March 9, 2018
Opening reception: February 13, 10:30 am to noon
Artist Talk: February 13, 11:30 am
Robert F. DeCaprio Gallery
Moraine Valley Community College
9000 W. College Parkway
Palos Hills, IL
February 10, 2018 to March 3, 2018
Opening reception: February 10, 6 pm to 10 pm
Agitator Gallery
1112 N Ashland
Chicago, Il 60622
Intuitive Hemispheres is a show that explores the work of two radically different artists whose work visually deals with the representation of subjective psychological and emotional states in dramatically different ways. Both artists by turning deeply inward, plumbing the subconscious and becoming radically in tune with their own emotions, present the viewer with at times lucid, terrifying, and deeply moving representations of the feelings that we all share in two dramatically different visual ways.
September 7 - October 1, 2017
Opening Reception: Friday, September 8, 6-8pm
Evanston Art Center
1717 Central Street
Evanston, IL 60201
This exhibition brings together a community of artists who strongly feel that art is personal, that the personal is political, and the political is very personal. The twenty-two North American contemporary artists selected for this exhibition were among those who responded to the call to create art about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As in many mediums, perspective derives from distance; being far away opens up a natural space for new viewpoints. Artists who are Far From the Front Lines have created an opportunity for artful dialog beyond borders. It allows both the audience and the artists themselves to actively promote meaningful change in our minds, where all borders ultimately reside.
October 1 to November 16, 2017
I am very happy to announce that I have been invited to attend a residency at the Baer Art Center from June 10 to 23, 2017. The center is located on a beautiful seaside farm facing the Arctic Circle. I am excited to immerse myself in the landscape and light of the midnight sun!
Sunday, September 25, 2016 - 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Spertus Institute
610 S. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL
RSVP required
Memory
Christopher Art Gallery
Prairie State College
202 S. Halsted
Chicago Heights, IL
February 8, 2016 to March 8, 2015
Reception: February 11, 4:30 to 7 pm
My landscape paintings will be exhibited in the cases on the 8th floor of the Harold Washington Library from February 1, 2016 to April 15, 2016.
400 S. State Street
Chicago, Il 60605
I have been selected to participate in the Midwest Jewish Artists Lab through Spertus Institute,an innovative project designed to forge collaborations, inspire new work, and broaden the impact of the arts in Jewish life.
I am excited to announce that a project I am a part of, Women of the Book, will be exhibiting in the Jerusalem Biennale at The First Station. My woodcut, Tazria, will be included in the exhibition. In addition, the image was selected for inclusion in the Biennale catalogue.
Fields of Dreams: Living Shmita in the Modern World
In preparation for Holtzblatt’s exhibit From Birth to Memory, opening at Josef Glimer Gallery on November 21, assistant director Nicole Rhoden sat down with the artist in her Rogers Park studio to discuss how her practice is shaped by spirituality, familial dynamics and the mystery that lies between personal and collective memory.
LeRoy Neiman Center
October 2 - 24, 2014
Public Reception: Thursday, October 2, 5 - 8 p.m.
Koehnline Museum of Art
Oakton Community College
1600 East Golf Road, Des Plaines, IL 60016
Renaissance Court Gallery, Chicago Cultural Center
January 31 to April 13, 2014
Opening Reception: January 30, 2014, 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm
As Subject and Object: Contemporary Book Artists Explore Sacred Hebrew Texts showcases the work of 14 contemporary book artists who explore traditional themes in unconventional ways.
June 14 to September 29, 2013
Museum of Biblical Art, New York
February 1 - March 29, 2013
Reception: March 13, from 3:15 to 5 p.m.
Northern Trust Canal Building
801 S. Canal Street
Chicago, IL 60607
Rose Blouin, Hyangsook Cho, Henrietta (Henny) Dubois, Andrea Harris, Ellen Holtzblatt, Renee Williams Jefferson, Pamela Michelle Johnson, Sioban Lombardi, Kathleen Blankely Roman, Shirley Sullivan, and Dorian Sylvain
March 1 to 31, 2013
Artist Talk and Workshop: March 28, 6-7 p.m.
Harold Washington Library Center, 8th Floor
400 S. State St., 60605
A. Montgomery Ward Gallery
University of Illinois at Chicago
750 S. Halsted
Chicago, IL
August 27 to September 27, 2012
Opening reception: September 12, 4pm to 8pm
Chicago Artists’ Coalition is pleased to present ELLEN HOLTZBLATT in this month’s Member Spotlight, featuring work from her painting series, Yizkor, an introspective exploration of the relationships among memory, birth and death.
May 11-31, 2012
Opening reception: May 11, 6-9pm
Chicago Artists' Coalition
217 N. Carpenter Street
Chicago, IL 60607
March 2 to April 26, 2012
Opening reception: March 2, 2012 6-9 PM
Woman Made Gallery
685 N Milwaukee Ave.
As part of Women's History Month, I will be exhibiting paintings from My series, Yizkor, at the Bucktown-Wicker Park Library through the month of March, 2012.
Bucktown-Wicker Park Library
1701 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647
Annual juried exhibition of the Jewish Women Artists Network, a special interest group within the Women's Caucus for Art (WCA.) Juried by Ruth Weisberg.
January 20, 2012 to May 31, 2012
Reception: Thursday, February 23, 5:00 – 7:00 PM
My artist book, "Sefer Hana," is included in the exhibition, "Multiple, Limited, Unique, selections from the permanent collection of The Center for Book Arts in New York, NY. The collection will be traveling through 2013 to Savannah College of Arts and Design, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Museum of Printing History, Lafayette College, and the Book Club of California.