News

Donald Ellis was featured in this article in The Globe and Mail about a Kwakwaka’wakw sun mask's return to B.C.

Read the article

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