Meet the Artist: Ellen Hanson

Painting on stretched textile, Ellen Hanson (b.1992) probes the performance of femininity: the resilience hidden beneath the veneer of fragility, and the clockwork domestic routines that cloak complex inner lives. First sketching figures in ink on elastic jersey, Hanson pulls the fabric to create distortions in the figure, physically embodying the experience of being stretched thin. The exaggerated figures are then painted over in oil, smoothed of all brushstrokes, and adorned with hints of decoration. The resulting paintings reflect the contradictions of our constructed notion of womanhood, where frustration is expected to take a backseat to frivolity, and the spectre of failing to live up to the ideal is constantly looming.

Your painting style plays with movement and light so fluently. Is there a reason you always keep your paintings in motion?

In the paintings of swimmers and skaters movement is really important. Their bodies are distorted through a process of stretching the fabric over stretchers and then exaggerated by blurring the paint. This is all to give the figures the feeling of spinning out of control. The movement is made even more dramatic by isolating them from their surroundings like they have become lost in it.

What references do you draw on for the often sequined clothes worn by the figures in your paintings?

These figures are taken from sports photographs of competitions, mostly from the Olympics or the World Cup. For the two paintings I made for ‘Art on a Postcard’ the reference images come from the performances of Debi Thomas and Katarina Witt in the 1988 Calgary Olympics.

How would you describe your work in three words?

Femininity, Frivolity, Failure

Do you have any projects on the horizon you would like to share?

Yes! I have a solo show opening at the end of February at Smart Objects in LA. In the spring, I have a show at Care Of Gallery in Winnetka, IL.