News

Donald Ellis Gallery is pleased to announce its participation in the eighth edition of Frieze Masters to be held in Regent’s Park, London, from October 3-6, 2019 with two VIP preview days on October 2nd and 3rd.

This year the gallery will present an exhibition of major historical Native American works of art from various cultures of the North American continent.  Spanning thousands of years, the exhibition will feature prominent works of art from various Inuit, Northwest Coast, Plains and Southwest cultures.  Highlights will be an exceptionally rare and important Oystercatcher shamans rattle attributed to the 18th century Tlingit carver Kadjisdu.acxh II, who has been identified as the most important historical Indigenous artist on the Pacific Northwest Coast.  Further highlights include an exquisitely rendered portrait mask of Djilakons, the legendary Haida ancestress, a selection of Kachina Dolls and a remarkable group of Pre-Inca painted Stone Tablets from the Southern Andes.

Complimenting the core presentation and consistent with previous years, we will have an auxiliary exhibition of Plains Indian Ledger Drawings.

For more information on the fair visit: https://frieze.com/fairs/frieze-masters

This fall, STANDARD (OSLO) will present the exhibition "Plains Ledger Drawings 1870-1920", a prominent collection of Native American Ledger Drawings from Donald Ellis Gallery.

For more information visit https://www.standardoslo.no/en/home

For over 2 years Donald Ellis negotiated the return of a rare sun mask seized from the Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw by the Canadian government on December 25, 1921. The mask was one of 750 objects confiscated by Indian agents at the Cranmer Potlatch on remote Village Island near Alert Bay, British Columbia.  It is now heading home to Alert Bay thanks to the efforts of Donald Ellis who donated the mask to the U’mista Cultural Centre, a First Nations museum whose mission is to preserve Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw cultural heritage.

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Drawings by Incarcerated Artists

October 11, 2019 - January 5, 2020

Opening, Thursday October 10, 6-8pm

Donald Ellis Gallery is excited to participate in the upcoming exhibition “The Pencil is a Key” at the Drawing Center (New York).  The show will examine the art of past and contemporary artists throughout the world who have experienced incarceration, or who developed as artists while incarcerated. Donald Ellis Gallery is the proud lender of a group of important Ledger Drawings produced by Native Americans while imprisoned at Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Florida, from 1875-78.

For more information on the exhibition please visit: http://www.drawingcenter.org/en/drawingcenter/5/exhibitions/9/upcoming/

Donald Ellis Gallery is pleased to announce its participation in the third edition of TEFAF New York Spring to be held at the Park Avenue Armory, New York, from May 3-7, 2019 with a VIP preview day on May 2nd.

At TEFAF New York Spring 2019 the gallery will present a highly selective and extraordinarily important group of objects from various indigenous cultures of North America - several of which are considered the finest examples of their type. Highlights include the Donati Studio mask, widely perceived to be the most important Yup’ik mask in private hands that brought a world record price when last sold a decade ago. The mask formerly belonged to the Surrealist painter Enrico Donati who among other Surrealist artists was not only fascinated with but also avidly collected Yup’ik masks. Additionally, the gallery will exhibit an exceptionally rare and important Oystercather shaman's rattle attributed the 18th century Tlingit carver Kadjisdu.acxh II, who has been identified as the most important historical Indigenous artist on the Pacific Northwest Coast. Further highlights include an exquisitely rendered portrait mask of Djilakons, the legendary Haida ancestress, a monumental Tlingit Model Totem Pole and a remarkable group of prehistoric Inuit ivories from Alaska, attesting to a two thousand year old tradition of artful carving in the Bering Sea region.

​TEFAF New York Spring 2019 will take place at the Park Avenue Armory, New York from May 3-7, 2019

Preview Opening: Thursday, May 2nd, 2019

For more information about the fair please visit: https://www.tefaf.com/fairs/tefaf-new-york-spring

Donald Ellis Gallery is pleased to announce its participation, for the third time, in Frieze New York to be held in Randall’s Island Park, New York, from May 2-5, 2019 with VIP previews on May 1st and May 2nd.

The gallery will present a curated exhibition of prominent historical works of art by Native American artists from various cultures and geographic regions.

Among the highlights will be a painted “War Record” attributed to the Blackfoot warrior Big Spring providing a pictorial narrative of his major life events.  It is one of a small number of large-scale canvases commissioned by the Great Northern Railway for their hotels in Glacier National Park, Montana, to promote tourist travel to the West in the early 20th century. Consistent with previous years, we will exhibit a prominent group of rare late 19th and early 20th century Plains Indian Ledger drawings, along side a highly select group of decorated rawhide containers known as parfleche.  Pictographic drawing on hides, and later paper, as a means of recording history and storytelling was the domain of Plains Indian warriors.  In contrast, the highly abstracted geometric designs on parfleche were solely the work of Plains Indian women.

The recent inclusion of historical Native American art in fairs such as TEFAF, Frieze New York and Frieze Masters, along with the recent donation and exhibition of 100 Native American works of art donated by Charles and Valerie Diker to the Metropolitan Museum of Art marks a turning point in our understanding and appreciation of this extraordinary and previously overlooked field of art.

FRIEZE NEW YORK 2019 will take place at Randall’s Island Park, New York May 2-5, 2019

Preview Openings: Wednesday, May 1st and Thursday, May 2nd, 2019

For more information please visit: https://frieze.com/fairs/frieze-new-york