ELLIE FRITZ

 

ELLIE FRITZ / Artist Statement 2025
elliefritz.com

Creating abstract art is more than just a creative pursuit—it is a vital tool that guides me through the world. My work is a tangible expression of my inner landscape, a space where I navigate complexities and emotions with authenticity and freedom. Through each layer and mark, I embrace the paradox of fragility and strength, exploring vulnerability while simultaneously discovering resilience. In the studio, I shed the weight of expectations and societal constraints. The process of improvisation becomes a form of liberation—a space where anxiety dissipates and my most authentic self emerges. Here, I fully embrace the present moment, responding intuitively to materials and the evolving artwork. This interplay between intention and chance mirrors the unpredictable nature of life, allowing me to find meaning and comfort within the chaos.

My work is born of improvisation, where spontaneous actions and decisions coalesce into imagery that is both fragmented and cohesive. Collage allows the static to become pictorial and dynamic, revealing layers of meaning that may not be immediately obvious but are deeply felt. I often work with a monochromatic palette, using color sparingly and intentionally. The color blue holds particular significance in my practice, evoking both spiritual and emotional states and connecting to vast, limitless spaces like the sky and
the ocean.

At its core, my work is a meditation on time and space—the unseen forces that contain us. The unfolding of time is deeply embedded in my process, as each gesture and decision becomes a marker of presence. Through abstraction, I don’t just create visual experiences—I cultivate a deeper understanding of my place in the world.

Artist Biography

Ellie Fritz is a full time artist who lives and works in Marin County, CA. She received her BFA in 2004 and her MFA in 2008 from the San Francisco Art Institute. Fritz produces works on paper and panel that combine various printmaking techniques with painting and drawing. Her works evolve through processes of physical interactions working with the weight of impression and the levity of erasure. Fritz explores and pushes the boundaries of unexpected materials in her work. Recently using mundane utilitarian building materials, and dry pigment made from collected incense ash to provide the tiniest hint of color, which interacts with formal elements at play. Fritz’s simple compositions rely on the tension between positive and negative space. The ways in which paper responds to materials such as paint and charcoal allows for a sensibility of improvisation and blurs the boundaries between strength and vulnerability.

In 2008, Fritz began working as an artist-in-residence at KALA Art Institute where she continues her printmaking studio practice today. In addition to her studio practice, Fritz has taught through extension programs in San Francisco, including ACE at SFAI, and taught printmaking as a visiting artist at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham. She has exhibited work in solo and group shows across the country including San Francisco, CA, Novato, CA, Berkeley, CA, Sacramento, CA, New York, NY, Birmingham, AL, and Dallas, TX to name a few.

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