Ellen Cornett: Into the Woods

EXHIBIT DESCRIPTION: In meticulously detailed drawings, Ellen Cornett creates surreal tableaux layered with narratives and themes frequently referencing fables, poems and rhymes which incorporate the Maryland artist’s fascination with stories of transformation, artifice, and disguise. In her solo exhibition, Ellen Cornett: Into the Woods, she presents a series of recent works where she manipulates familiar characters into mysterious vignettes exploring conflict, misunderstanding, absurdity and relationships gone awry. While the subject matter of each of the 37 drawings in the exhibition varies widely, common motifs tie them together and make them seem like moments in one long, overarching plot. Using carbon pencil, supplemented by colored pencil in select works, she skillfully renders animals and humans, often wearing animal masks, interacting in unexpected ways in ambiguous scenes, filled with absurd possibilities, where unresolved endings leave room for the viewer’s interpretation.

ABOUT THE ARTIST: Cornett has presented solo exhibitions at Brentwood Arts Exchange, Greater Reston Arts Center, Marymount University, Fisher Art Gallery at Northern Virginia Community College, and Montpelier Arts Center among others.  Her work has been selected for numerous group exhibits at regional and national galleries, including Touchstone Gallery, Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery, Harmony Hall, Maryland Federation of Art, Nave Gallery in Somerville, MA and FeGallery in Sacramento, CA. Her work has received awards in juried competitions and is included in both private and public collections, including the Montgomery County Public Art Trust. In 2019, the Hirshhorn Museum selected Cornett to participate in the interactive exhibition Rirkrit Tiravanija: (who’s afraid of red, yellow, and green) where she, along with 14 other artists, drew on the walls of the museum to create murals depicting protest, rebellion, and repression. She earned a BA in Studio Art from the University of Maryland, College Park where she focused on printmaking. Cornett teaches drawing and painting at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop in Washington, DC where she is the Visual Arts Department Chair. Cornett maintains her studio in Cheverly, MD. Learn more: www.ellencornett.com