Description
ARTIST STATEMENT
My mother died last year at the age of 102. During her last years I observed her isolation, cognitive decline, and the effects of emotional and physical loneliness. The needs of the body—both basic bodily functions, and spiritual and emotional yearnings—are satisfied largely through physical proximity to others. The portraits of my mother are often set in landscapes that are stark, with the figures devolving into their backgrounds. My paintings expresses the collective fragility of the human condition – our tenuous threads of existence.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Ellen Holtzblatt, a Chicago-based artist, explores connections between the physical and spiritual worlds. Through figures and landscapes, she expresses the power and vulnerability of mind, soul, and the passage of time.
Holtzblatt exhibits her work in the United States and internationally at venues including Rockford Art Museum, Chicago Cultural Center, Fermilab Gallery, Freeport Art Museum, Jerusalem Biennale, Museum of Biblical Art, Inselgalerie in Berlin, and Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art. She has been awarded artist residencies in the U.S. and Iceland, and was a 2019/2020 artist resident with the Chicago Artists Coalition, where she exhibited in two-person and group exhibits. Holtzblatt’s work is held in numerous public and private collections, and has been written about in multiple publications, including New City, The Chicago Sun-Times, and Sixty Inches From Center. Holtzblatt graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with degrees in painting and art therapy.
© Ellen Holtzblatt