Darrel Ellis (b.1958, Bronx, New York; d.1992, New York, New York)
Darrel Ellis was a mixed media artist.
Ellis drew inspiration from a cache of 1950s photographs made by his father, Thomas Ellis, who was brutally murdered by police officers at the age of 33, a month before Darrel was born. The elder Ellis had been an amateur photographer, and had even briefly run a portrait studio. Working from prints of his father’s pictures, and later from the original negatives, Darrel recreated the images using photography, painting, and drawing as his mediums. After graduating high school, Ellis took classes at the Cooper Union, attended the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program, and as awarded an Artist in Residence at MoMA PS1. To support himself, he also worked as a security guard at the Museum of Modern Art.
Ellis did not show very much during his life. Although he rubbed shoulders with more famous contemporaries, like Robert Mapplethorpe and Peter Hujar (both of whom took his portrait, which he later reworked into critically-acclaimed self-portraits), his work remained relatively unknown. A few years before his death, he participated in Nan Goldin’s 1989 exhibition Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing at Artists Space, which garnered national attention. He was on the brink of more widespread recognition when his life was cut short by AIDS in 1992 at the age of 33—the same age his father had died.
Ellis first received major public exposure in 1992, shortly after his death, when his work was included in New Photography 8 at The Museum of Modern Art, curated by Peter Galassi, which took place one year after his first solo show at Baron/Boisante gallery. A major retrospective of Ellis’ work was mounted in 1997 at Art in General, curated by Allan Frame. In 2019, OSMOS presented a survey of Darrel Ellis’ oeuvre, including his lesser-known but equally as brilliant drawings and paintings.
Since 2021, the Ellis Estate has been represented by Candice Madey.
Darrel Ellis
Untitled (Mother Father Laure), 1990
Silver gelatin print
11 x 14 inches
Darrel Ellis
Untitled (Grandmother Lilian Ellis), 1980-1990
Silver gelatin print
13 x 10 inches
Darrel Ellis
Untitled (Artist’s mother from Thomas Ellis photo), c. 1980-1990
Gouache on canvas
25 x 24 inches
