Darrel Ellis: Regeneration

Co-organized by The Baltimore Museum of Art and The Bronx Museum.

As moving as it is complex, the multifaceted work of Darrel Ellis (1958–1992) restages a lost vision of Black selfhood and domesticity. His oeuvre has presented a formidable challenge to curators and scholars over the last thirty years for its unfinished tenor, a perception heightened by his untimely death due to AIDS-related causes at age 33. Although Ellis’ work was included in important contemporary surveys during his lifetime, including the 1989 exhibition Witnesses:  Against Their Vanishing, organized by Nan Goldin, only now is it beginning to garner the attention it deserves. The exhibition Darrel Ellis: Regeneration offers the first comprehensive, scholarly survey of this pioneering artist, whose highly original merging of painting, printmaking, and photography anticipated current artistic interest in archive, appropriation, and personal narrative.

May - Aug, 2023
    • Darrel Ellis, Untitled (Portrait of Thomas Ellis III). (n.d.). Courtesy of Candice Madey, New York and The Darrel Ellis Estate. © Darrel Ellis Estate and Candice Madey, New York
    • Darrel Ellis, Untitled (Aunt Lena and Grandmother Lilian Ellis), 1990. Collection of Frank Franca. © Darrel Ellis Estate and Candice Madey, New York. © Darrel Ellis Estate and Candice Madey, New York
    • Darrel Ellis, Untitled (Grandfather Thomas and Cousin Irving), c. 1990. The Baltimore Museum of Art: The William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, BMA 2019.160. © Darrel Ellis Estate and Candice Madey, New York
    • Darrel Ellis, Untitled (Laure on Easter Sunday), c. 1989–1991. Courtesy of Candice Madey, New York and The Darrel Ellis Estate. © Darrel Ellis Estate and Candice Madey, New York
    • Darrel Ellis, Untitled, c. 1988–1991. Courtesy of Candice Madey, New York and The Darrel Ellis Estate. © Darrel Ellis Estate and Candice Madey, New York
    • Darrel Ellis, Untitled (Laure, from Father's Photograph), ca. 1990, Gelatin silver print, 16 x 20 inches, Bronx Museum of the Arts Collection, Gift of Scot and Julie Cohen 2006.4
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