Born Los Angeles, California
Resides Brooklyn, New York
EDUCATION
University of Wisconsin, Madison
University of California at Los Angeles, B.A., M.F.A.
SELECTED ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2022 Ellen Brooks, Trees 1987/2022 Leaves 2022, Catskill Art Space,
Livingston Manor, NY
2022/27 Ellen Brooks, Hang, Catskill Art Space, Livingston Manor, NY
2017 Screens, Lord Ludd Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2013 Photographs and Tableaux Reliefs from the Early 80’s, Roth Gallery, NY, NY
2006 Ellen Brooks: Photographs From The 70’s, Roth Gallery, New York, NY
2003 Leslie Tonkonow Gallery, New York, New York
2000 Leslie Tonkonow Gallery, New York, New York
Gallery Luisotti, Los Angeles, California
1997 University of Nevada Art Gallery at Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada
1996 Wooster Gardens, New York, New York
1993/4 Palm Beach Community College Museum of Art, Lake Worth, Florida
University of Washington, Bellingham, Washington
Center for the Arts, Virginia Beach, Virginia
Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art (Work from 1986 - 1992), traveling show
Stux Gallery, New York, New York
Dorothy Goldeen Gallery, Santa Monica, California
1992 Vikky Alexander/Ellen Brooks, Wooster Gardens, New York, New York
Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery at Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
Vikky Alexander/Ellen Brooks, Ansel Adams Center, Friends of
Photography, San Francisco, California
1991 Polaroid Project: Ellen Brooks/Vikky Alexander, Dorothy Goldeen Gallery,
Santa Monica, California
1990 Dorothy Goldeen Gallery, Santa Monica, California
Urbie et Orbie, Paris, France
Ehlers/Caudhill Gallery, Chicago, lllinois
1989 Annina Nosei Gallery, New York
1988 Ellen Brooks: 1979-1987 Freedman Gallery, Albright College, Pennsylvania
1987 Annina Nosei Gallery, New York
1986 Torch Gallery, Amsterdam, Holland
1985 Window Installation, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York
1983 Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York
Rhode lsland School of Design, Providence, Rhode lsland
1982 Galerie T’Venster, Rotterdam, Holland
1981 Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, New York
1978 N.A.M.E. Gallery, Chicago, lllinois
1977 San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California
1976 University of Nevada Art Gallery, Las Vegas, Nevada
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017 The Unreliable Narrator, Art Helix
2014 The Photographic Object 1970, Hauser and Wirth, New York, NY
Sargent’s Daughters, New York, NY
2013 A Democracy of Images: Photographs from the Smithsonian American Art
Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC
The Photographic Object 1970, Le Consortium, Dijon, France
2011 Photography into Sculpture/The Evolving Photographic Object Cherry
and Martin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981, Museum of
Contemporary Art Los Angeles, CA
2009 Incheon Women’s Artist Biennale, Tuning Exhibitions, Incheon,
2006 Witness Protection, San Bernadino,California
2005 Shelter From The Storm,Allston Skirt Gallery,Boston, Ma
Heavenly or A Slice of White, The Hunter College Art Galleries, New York,
NY
2002 Doors: Image and Metaphor in Contemporary Art,New Jersey Center for the Arts
Arrested Development, Castle Gallery, The College of New Rochelle
Global Priority:Artist Network Via Mail,Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning,
Jamaica, NY
2000 Process/Reprocess Leslie Tonkonow Gallery, New York, New York
The Snapshot Baltimore Museum of Contemporary Art, Baltimore,Maryland
1998 Goldman Sachs Collection, James Michener Museum, Doylestown
Pennsylvania Tourism Leslie Tonkonow Gallery, New York, New York
1997 Adolescents, Julie Saul Gallery, New York
Avon Collection, international Center of Photography, New York
1996 Prospect 96, Frankfurter Kunstveren, Germany
Lush Christine Rose Gallery, New York
Making Pictures: Women and Photography, 1975-Now, Nicole Klagsbrun
Gallery, New York
1995 lnstallations Real Art Ways Hartford, Connecticut
Bit by Bit Post Photographic Imaging, The Art Gallery at Hunter College
It's Only Rock & Roll, The Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati
Bit by Bit, Hunter College Galleries, New York, NY
min-i-mund-us, White Columns, New York, NY
Abstract Photographs, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland
1994 Content and Discontent in Today's Photography, Ansel Adams Center for
Photography, San Francisco, CA
Museum of Modern Art Collection, New York, NY The Gallery at
Takashimaya, New York, NY
1993 Proof: Los Angeles Art and the Photograph 1960 - 1980, Laguna Art Museum,
CA
Travelling show from Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach
Center for the Arts, Virginia
1992 Ellen Brooks, Geoffrey James, Michael Smith, Trepanier Baer Gallery,
Calgary, Alberta
Blum-Hellman Gallery, Warehouse Space, New York
Photography Reproduction Production: The Work in the Age of
Mechanical Representation, Suzanne Lemberg Usdan Gallery, Bennington
College, Vermont
Between Home and Heaven, National Museum of American Art,
Washington, D.C.
Departures Photography 1923- 1990, travelling show organized by independent
Curator's incorporated
New Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
SPECS, Annina Nosei, Gallery,New York
1991 Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort, Museum of Modern Art, New York
De Persona, Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland, California
Landscape, Annina Nosei Gallery, New York
1990 The Indomitable Spirit, lnternational Center of Photography, New York
About Nature: A Romantic Impulse, Barbara Toll Gallery, New York
1989 Meyers/Bloom Gallery, Santa Monica, California
L'lnvention d'un Art, Pompidu Centre, Paris, France
The Photography of Invention, National Museum of American Art,
Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.
Chaos, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York,
Nature and Culture, Ansel Adams Center, San Francisco, California
Schmidt/Markow Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri
Abstraction in Contemporary Photography, Hamilton College, Hamilton,
New York
Constructed Realities, Kunstverein Munchen, Munchen, West Germany
Through A Glass Darkly, University of lllinois Art Gallery
Mediated Knot, Robin Lockett Gallery, Chicago, lllinois
Ehlers/Caudhill Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Landscope, Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York
1988 Aids Show curated by Group Material, DIA Foundation, New York
Milford Gallery, New York
Certain Shots, McNeil Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Dart Gallery, Chicago, lllinois
Photography and Art, Queens Museum, Queens, New York
A Visible Order, Otis Parsons Exhibition Center, Los Angeles, California
Robin Lockett Gallery, Chicago, lllinois
Sex, Death and Jello, Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago, lllinois
1987 New York Art, Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Photography and Art:1946-1986, Los Angeles County Museum of Art,
Los Angeles, California
The Art of Portraiture in Contemporary Photography, October for the
Arts, ELAC, Lyon, France
Photography, Annina Nosei Gallery, New York
The Spiral of Artificiality, Hallwalls Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Lawrence Oliver Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Who's Who in Photography, Hoffman-Borman Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Portrayal, lnternational Center of Photography, New York
Cash Newhouse Gallery, New York
This Is Not A Photograph: Twenty Years of Large Scale Photography
966-1986, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida
1986 A Visible Order, Lieberman and Saul Gallery, New York
Ellen Brooks, Stephen Frailey, Richard Prince, Josh Baer Gallery, New York
Signs of the Real, White Columns, New York
The Real Big Picture, Queens Museum, Queens, New York
Altered States, Bard College, Annandale-on- Hudson, New York
Photographic Fictions, Whitney Museum of American Art, Fairfield County, CT
Imagie, Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal, Canada
1985 In Plato's Cave, Marlborough Gallery, New York
Thought Objects, Cash Newhouse Gallery, New York
The Family in Contemporary Art, Washington Projects for the Arts, Washington,
D.C.
Alumni Show, University of California at Los Angeles
1984 The Anxious Interior, Laguna Museum of Art, La Jolla, California
Yajima Gallery, Montreal, Canada
Pushing the Boundaries: Photography in California 1945-1980, San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
1983 L'lmage Fabriques, Centres Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
1983 Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
The Self as Subject, University of New Mexico at Albuquerque, New Mexico
1982 Photographers lnvite Photographers, N.A.M.E. Gallery, Chicago, lllinois
lmage Scavengers, lnstitute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Staged Photo Events, Rotterdamse Kunststichting, travelling to NEUE
Galerie/Sammlung Ludwig, Aachen and Municipal Van Reekum
Museum, Apeldoorn
Beyond Photography: The Fabricated Image, Delhaunty Gallery, New York
California Photography, Museum of Art, Rhode lsland School of Design,
Providence, Rhode lsland
Color Photography, George Eastman House, Rochester, New York
1981 Color Photography: New Images, University of California at San Diego, California
Contemporary Photography, Jeffrey Fuller Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Love is Blind, Castelli Gallery, New York
New Voices Two: 6 Photographers: Concept/Theater/Fiction, Allen
Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio
Life as Story, Northlight Gallery, University of Arizona, Tempe,
1980 Interiors, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York
1979 Fabricated to be Photographed, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,
San Francisco, California
Four Bay Area Artists, University of California at Santa Barbara
Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, California
Attitudes: Photography in the 1970's, Santa Barbara Museum of Art,
Santa Barbara, California
Susan Hilberry Gallery, Detroit, Michigan
Four Installations, Los Angeles lnstitute of Contemporary Art, Los
Angeles, California
1978 Photographs from the Collection of Samuel Wagstaff Jr., Corcoran Gallery of
Art, Washington, D.C.
A Peek into the Private Life of Rose Selevay, Helene Euphrat Gallery,
De Anza College, Cupertino, California
Optica Gallery, Montreal, Canada
1976 Contemporary American Photographers, Frederick S. Wright Art Gallery,
University of California at Los Angeles
Conceptual Photographers, La Mamelle Art Center, San Francisco, California
1975 Edinburgh Arts Festival, Edinburg, Scotland
1974 Light and Substance, Art Galleries, University of California at San Diego
New Photographs in San Francisco and the Bay Area, De Young Museum,
San Francisco, California
1973 Images: Dimensional,Movable, Transferable, Akron Art Institute, Ohio
Light and Substance, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Light and Lens, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York
1972 The Cup Show, David Stuart Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Two Woman Show, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California
1971 Art for Public Places, Henry Gallery, University of Seattle, Washington
Phelan Award Show, San Francisco, California
1970 California Photographers, Pasadena Museum of Art, Pasadena, California
Photography into Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Group Show University of Florida at Gainesville, Florida
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2006 Aletti, Vince, New Yorker, February 13+20, 2006
Cotter,Holland,New York Times February 10, 2006
2005 “NO 1 First Works by 362 Artists” edited Francesca Richer and Matthew
Rosenzweig, DAP [book]
2003 Village Voice,Voice Choice January 29-February 4,2003
Art in America, September 2003
2002 Zimmer, William New York Times, May 5,2002
Bischoff, Dan, Star Ledger, April 21,2002
2000 Blind Spot, Issue 15
Cotter, Holland, New York Times, March 10, 2000
Aletti, Vince, The Village Voice, March, 2000
The New Yorker, March 19, 2000
Schmerlen, Sarah, Time Out New York, April 6, 2000
Frank, Peter, LA Weekly, May 5, 2000
1996 Aletti, Vince. The Village Voice, June 25.
Saltz, Jerry. "Ellen Brooks", Time Out New York, July 3-10, issue No. 41.
1993. Rubin David. "Ellen Brooks, Nature as Artifice", Cleveland Center for
Contemporary Art. [catalog]
1992 Ottman, Klaus. "Ellen Brooks" Middletown Connecticut, Ezra & Cecile
Zikha Gallery, Wesleyan University [catalog]
Hagen, Charles. "A Show of Five Artists Who Use the Look of Photo
Reproduction", The New York Times, May 18.
Muchnic, Suzanne. "Reaping the Rewards ‘Avarice’", Los Angeles Times, July 8.
Vogel, Carol. "The Art Market", The New York Times, September 1
Hagen, Charles. "Scoping Out New Photography at the Modern", The
New York Times, November 15.
1991 Jones, Ronald. "de Persona at the Oakland Museum", Photo Metro, June p. 25.
Bonetti, David. "de Persona': Go Figure It", San Fran. Examiner, June 7, pC7.
Barrie, Lita. "Body Parts - de Persona at the Oakland Museum", Artweek, July 4,
pp.15-17.
Kahn, Alice. "A One Time Bimbo Becomes a Muse: Barbie's Odd Odyssey,
From Toyland to Artville", The New York Times, September 29.
Squires, Carol. Art Forum, November
Tonkonow, Leslie. Interview, Journal of Contemporary Art, Fall/Winter
1990 McCracken, David. "Five Alternatives for Expophobe", Chicago Tribune, May 11.
Foerstner, Abigail. "Enderlein Exhibit views Frailty; Brooks' Art Uses Illusion"
Chicago Tribune, May 11
1989 Sayag, Alain, De la photographie comme un des beaux arts.
Paris:Centre National de la Photographie [catalog]
Brenson, Michael. "Straitened Landscapes Of a Post Modern Era", The
New York Times, January 13.
Haus, Mary Ellen. "Beyond Nature, Ellen Brooks", TemaCeleste, Jan/Feb
Grundberg, Andy. "Mapping the Traces Man Leaves on the Land", The
New York Times, March 5.
Arts Magazine, Spring.
Heartney, Eleanor. "Ellen Brooks at Annina Nosei", ArtNews, Spring
"Photography", The New Yorker, March 13.
McCoy, Pat. "Ellen Brooks", Artscribe, September/October.
C Magazine, full-page reproduction, Portfolio Section, Winter 1989
1988 Rubin, David S. "Ellen Brooks: Photographs and Configurations",
Reading, Pennsylvania, Freedman Galler, Albright College,1988 [catalog]
Art News, February.
Argence, Guy. "Octobre des Arts, Lyon", Opus lnternational #107, Mars-Avril.
New York Times, July 5.
McCoy, Pat. Artscribe, September.
1987 Jones, Ronald. "Ellen Brooks" New York: Annina Nosei Gallery [catalog]
Schwendenwien, Jude. "Ellen Brooks, Richard Prince, Stephen Frailey,
Oliver Wason", FlashArt, Summer.
Heiferman, Marvin and Jacobs, Joseph. "This is Not a Photograph:Twenty
Years of Large Scale Photography 1966-1986", John and Mable Ringling
Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida [catalog]
Steinbach, Charles and Squiers, Carol. "Portrayals", lnternational Center
of Photography. [catalog]
Art Rite, July.
Village Voice, July 7.
Grundberg, Andy. "Critic's Choices: Photography", The New York Times, Aug 9.
Knight, Christopher. "A Cultural Self-portrait, Warts and All", Los Angeles
Herald Examiner, August 7.
Gerome, Elyane. "Coups de coeur", Le Progres, 15 Octobre.
Bost, Bernadette. "Portraits dAmerique", Le Monde R.A., 10 Octobre
Peillod, Claire. "Portraits Photographiques", Lyon Poche, 21 Octobre
Touraine, Lillane. "Octobre des Arts a Lyon", Intervention, Quebec,
Octobre Sozanski, Edward. "On Galleries", The Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 29,
p. 5-C. New York Times, November 13.
Durand, Regis. "Portraits Americains Ou Le Sujet En Crise", Art Press
No. 120, Decembre.
Ottman, Klaus. "Photomannerisms", FlashArt, November/December pp. 70-72.
Village Voice, December 1.
Goldberg, Vicki. "Take Two Media, Mix Well", New York Times Book
Review, December 6.
1984 Katzman, Louise. "Pushing the Boundries: Photography in California
1945-1980" New York: Hudson Hill Press in association with the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art [catalog]
"The Anxious Interior" Laguna Museum of Art, La Jolla, California.
[catalog] Godeau, Abigail Solomon. "ln Plato's Cave".
"Photography in California 1945 - 1980" San Francisco Museum of Modern
Art. Parachute, Canada.
Simon, Cheryl. "lmages Fabriquees", Vanguard, Canada, March.
1983 Asaki Camera, Feature on Selected Photographers Japan and New York.
Naef, Weston. "New Trends", volume of The Gallery of World
Photography "Biennial" Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. [catalog]
"Family Feuds", Modern Photography.
Glueck, Grace. "Artists Who 8cavenge' from the Media", The New York
Times, January 9.
Village Voice, January 11.
Grundberg, Andy. "ln the Arts: Critics' Choices", The New York Times, Feb. 20.
Chicago Sun-Times, March.
Artner, Alan G. "Doctored lmages as an Emerging Photographic Trend Are
Pulled into Focus", Chicago Tribune, March 18.
Alderson, John. "Photographers Often lmpose Their Will on Images", Chicago
Sun-Times, March 27.
Grundberg, Andy. "Photography:Biennial Show", New York Times, Apr. 1 p.C23.
Smith, Roberta. "The Whitney Biennial- Taking Con Sensus", The Village
Voice, April 26.
Handy, Ellen. Arts Reviews, Arts Magazine, April, p.37.
"Camera at Work" Life Magazine, May
Bellevance, Leslie. "Photographers lnvite Photographers", New Art Examiner,
May, p. 18.
Cohen, Ronny H. " Image Scavengers: Photography, an Exhibition", The
Print Collector's Newsletter, May/June,
Grundberg, Andy. "Exploring the Improbable", The New York Times July 11.
Grundberg, Andy. "Post-Modernists in the Mainstream", The New York
Times November 20, p.H-27.
1982 Picture Magazine, Tableaux lssue
Johnson,Deborah. "California Photography", Museum of Art, Rhode lsland
School of Design, Providence XXXlX Supplement 1981-82.
Coke, Van Deren. "Fabricated to be Photographed", San Francisco Museum
of Art, California. [catalog]
New York Times, July 11.
1981 "Exposure", Women's Issue.
Thomas, Lew and dAgostino, Peter. "Still Photography: The Problematic
Model", N.F.S. Press. [catalog]
"New Voices Two: 6 Photographers: ConceptTTheater/Fiction", Bulletin,
Oberlin College. [catalog]
Artweek, March 7.
The Soho Weekly News, April 15.
1979 Witkin, Lee and London, Barbara. "The Photograph Collector's Guide",
Morgan & Morgan. [book]
Los Angeles Times, January 8.
Madans, Christina J. "Four Uses of Space", Artweek, January 20.
"Cupid Meets Mr. Peanut", Art News, LXXClll March.
Los Angeles Times, September 16.
San Francisco Chronicle, November 25.
Art Week, November
Art Week, December 8
1978 "Photographs from the Collection of Samuel Wagstaff Jr., Light Impressions"
[book]
"Who's Who in American Art", Marquis Publication, Chicago, Illinois. [book]
1977 Mangelos, M. Basicevic. Foto; San Francisco. Zagreb, Yugoslavia: Centar
za Fotografiju, Film i Televisiju
Fischer, Hal, Artweek, November 12.
1976 "lntersection, Photographic Images, Resources, Processes" San Jose
State University. [catalog]
LeVeque, Ann. "Gallery As Studio", The Gallery of The Claremont
Colleges, Claremont, California. [catalog]
“Catalogue of the U.C.L.A. Collection of Contemporary Photographs",
University of California Press. [catalog]
1975 "Sculpture, Materials and Methods", Holt, Rinehart, Winston, New York
[book] "Time -Life Yearbook", Time-Life Inc., New York. [book]
1974 "Photography 1974", Holt, Rinehart, Winston, New York [book]
Barrow,Thomas F. "Light and Substance", Albuquerque: University Art
Museum, University of New Mexico.1974. [catalog]
1973 "lmages: Dimensional, Movable, Transferable", Akron Art Institute, Akron,
Ohio. [catalog]
1971 Arts in Virginia XI, Spring.
Bunnell, Peter C., "Photography lnto Sculpture".
California Photographers 1970, University of California at Davis. Print,
Spring. [catalog]
Arts Canada, Summer.
"Continuum", Downey Museum of Art.
1970 California Photographers, Davis: University of California [catalog]
TEACHING EXPERIENCE [including guest residencies]
2006-1984 New York University, Tisch School of the Arts
2005 Cooper Union
2001-1999 School of Visual Arts, New York
1999 Guest artist, School of the Art lnstitute of Chicago
1997 Visiting artist University of Vancouver, Victoria ,B C
Washington University, Saint Louis ,Missouri
California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA
1995 Visiting artist at the School of the Art lnstitute of Chicago
1985 School of Visual Arts, New York
1983 University of New Mexico at Albuquerque
Rhode lsland School of Design, Providence, Rhode lsland
International Center of Photography, New York
1982-1973 San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California
1978 Neighborhood Arts, San Francisco, California
1977 School of the Art lnstitute of Chicago, Spring Semester
SELECTED AWARDS
2002 MacDowell Residency
1998 MacDowell Residency
1995 Fellowship peer panel, National Endowment for the Arts
1991 National Endowment for the Arts, lndividual Fellowship
1979 National Endowment for the Arts, lndividual Fellowship
1972 Phelan Award, Oakland, California
Alumni Award, University of California at Los Angeles
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Whitney Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Deutsche Bank ,Frankfurt, Germany
Museum of Modern Art, New York
National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Musee d’Art Contemporain of Montreal, Canada
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio
Albright-Knox Museum, Buffalo, New York
Getty Museum of Art, Malibu, California
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Museo d' Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
City of Paris
Capitol Group Corporation (commissioned project), Los Angeles, California
University of California at Los Angeles
Deutsche Bank ,Frankfurt, Germany
Southeast Banking Corporation, Coral Gables, Florida
Standard Oil
Merrill Lynch
Goldman Sachs Corporation
Progressive Corporation, Ohio
Arthur Andersen Corporation
Allan Goldring, New York
Fred Alger Corporation
Pitney Bowes Corporation, Connecticut
Estate of Robert Mapplethorpe
U.S. Trust
Willis Corroon Corporation
Continental lnsurance Company, New York
Polaroid Corporation, Cambridge, Massachusetts