ELLEN McFADDEN

Paintings
co-curated by Jason Sturgill

October 4 to November 16, 2014

Ampersand is pleased to present an exhibition of rarely shown paintings by Ellen McFadden. Born in 1928 in Portland, Mcfadden has been working in design her entire life, both as an instructor and as a free-lance graphic designer in the Northwest and Iowa. Coming of age during the time when WWII veterans were returning from the war, she attended the Portland Art Museum Art School in the post-war years and took classes with Doug Lynch and Lloyd Reynolds, among others. At the time she also set up a "cubby-hole" office in downtown where she did pre-press mechanicals for other designers and free-lance calligraphy. Influenced in the early 1960s by Constructivist and New Graphic Design movements in Europe, she and her husband, Irwin McFadden, assimilated new styles and typefaces into their own practice at a time when clients were more comfortable with traditional approaches. Now in her mid-80s, she works full-time on paintings that incorporate pattern and vibrant color, their titles alluding to the Northwest geography and native tribes that are so engrained in her personal history, one that she tends to dismiss by ending a conversation with "now back to the drawing board." She is equally matter-of-fact when describing her work: "I see the two dimensional surface as the basis for tension and interaction with shape and the four outside edges. Color is a part of that interaction. Perhaps that vision comes from my years of graphic design, working with a defined two dimensional space and its restrictions."

Inquire about available works here.