About
Of Icelandic-Canadian and Scottish descent, Ellen Scobie is based in Metro Vancouver, on the unceded traditional and ancestral homelands of the q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), q̓ʷɑ:n̓ƛ̓ən̓ (Kwantlen), Máthkwi (Matsqui), and se’mya’me (Semiahmoo) First Nations. She works with photo-based imagery and figurative sculpture.
Artist Statement
Driven by a profound concern for the well-being of planet earth, I use digital imagery and sculpture to explore the interconnectedness and interdependency of all lifeforms. We are facing deep societal and ecological imbalances. I imagine humanity more integrated with biological communities in a symbiotic existence. This requires a major shift in the way we use, consume and dispose of materials and other resources. As we refocus our attention away from the pursuit of capital and the degradation of the planet, we open space inside of us to grow in compassion and humility in our relations with nonhuman lifeforms. I search for a poetic expression of such an existence. My process involves extracting pixels from digital photographs to use as building-blocks in my compositions. I view this as a process of renewal as I take these artifacts of the past and facilitate their rebirth into something new. The clay figures I sculpt connect me to an activity that humans have engaged in for millennia, from a time when human culture was wholly entangled with clay. I muse on the body’s connection to the physical properties of the earth, the body as a vehicle for meaning, the eventual death of the body and its return to the soil, to the clay, and to the subterranean biome.
Selected Group Exhibits
2024 Baring, Daring, Sharing, O’Connor Group Art Gallery, Chilliwack, BC, Oct. 23 – Nov 23
2024 AX National Emerging Ceramic Artists Exhibition, AX Arts & Cultural Centre of Sussex, NB, Dec. 8/23 – Feb. 24/24
2023 Fraser Valley Biennial 2023, O’Connor Group Art Gallery, Chilliwack, BC, Nov. 2 – Dec. 2
2023 Fraser Valley Biennial 2023, The Reach Gallery Museum, Abbotsford, BC, Jan. 27 – May 6
2022 The Ceramics Congress Australia, Cat Exhibition, Online
2017 49 at 74, Works on Paper by Canadian Artists, Marbury NYC, New York City
2017 4th Annual CODA award Winners, The Octagon Museum, Washington, DC
2016-17 Arts Alive Oak Bay, Public Sculpture Competition, Victoria, BC
2015 Members Exhibit, Malaspina Printmakers, Vancouver
2015 A Tribute to David Suzuki, Hot Art Wet City, Vancouver
2014-15 Mixed Media Exhibit, Der Teufelhof, Basel, Switzerland
2014 Kingsbrae Garden Canadian Sculpture Competition Exhibit, New Brunswick
2011 Refresh, Seymour Art Gallery, North Vancouver
2011 The Interior Sea and Memory Ambushed, Unitarian Church, Vancouver (Solo Show)
2010 Cross-Pollination: 14 Contemporary Artists in Digital Media, Digital Art Guild, San Diego
2010 PIPE ‘10, Penang International Print Exhibition, Penang State Art Gallery, Malaysia
2010 Window Views, CityScape Community Art Space, North Vancouver
2009 The Red Dot Affair, Maple Ridge Art Gallery, Vancouver
2009 Memory Ambushed, Plaskett Gallery, New Westminster
2008 Night of 1000 Drawings, Artists Space, New York
2008 Snap to Grid, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art (LACDA), Los Angeles
2008 International Digital Art Show, Inaugural Exhibit of the Museum of Computer Art (MOCA), Brooklyn, NY
2008 Summer Salon, Isabella Egan Gallery, Vancouver
2008 One 4 One, Maple Ridge Art Gallery, Vancouver
1986 The Manitoba Society of Artists 54th Art Competition and Juried Exhibit
1985 Barbequing in the Core, Ace Art, Winnipeg
Awards + Commissions
2018 Sculpture commission, Big Pants, a 6-foot terracotta abstract figure. Client: Herschel Supply Co. Commissioned by Omer Arbel Office.
2014 Finalist, Canadian Sculpture Competition, Kingsbrae Garden, St. Andrews, NB, Canada
2008 Honourable Mention, International Digital Art Show, Inaugural Exhibit of the Museum of Computer Art (MOCA), Brooklyn, NY
Catalogs
2023 Fraser Valley Biennial 2023, Catalog, The Reach Gallery Museum Abbotsford
2010 Cross-Pollination: 14 Contemporary Artists in Digital Media, Catalog, Digital Arts Guild, San Diego
2010 PIPE ‘10, Penang International Print Exhibition, Exhibition Catalog, Penang State Art Gallery, Malaysia
2008 MOCA: Museum of Computer Art, Brooklyn, New York, Inaugural Exhibit Catalog
Education
2017 Barcelona Academy of Art, Summer Studies in Sculpture
1989 London College of Printing, England, Certificate Studies with Distinction
1984 University of Manitoba, Bachelor of Fine Arts (Art History), Dean’s Honour List