Tim Ebner

Tim Ebner presents his most recent works consisting of a steel sculpture, ceramic sculptures, and oil and acrylic paintings with Rosamund Felsen Gallery. Many of these works speak to Ebner’s fondness of the sea. Defying the unforgiving nature of the material, iron is shaped into gestural lines and languid forms in the tall spiraling steel sculpture depicting a vortex of eels and fish. Rigid and heavy objects appear as if gliding through space in this foray of movement through sculpture. The second series of meditative ceramic works are lower profile, resting on the ground, and are glazed with muted and soft colors. Abstract ceramic shapes evoke feelings of waters or silhouettes of fish – some have scaly or spotted textures which have been imposed. In the final series, vivid portraits are painted with deep and vibrant colors. Sharks, birds, fish and other animals all have their moment in the spotlight. The use of a bolder color palette is inspired by Ebner’s discoveries in the visual world as it is presented by digital technology, specifically backlight displays and high resolution photographs. Shadows and highlights are studied through paint in a way never before possible to the artist. Light brush strokes of oil paint lay on top of soft airbrushed backgrounds to create visceral readings of the subject’s volume and mass. Specific painted details like the unique glimmer of an eye expose a new and different relationship to light for the artist, while they simultaneously evoke sensory feelings of familiarity with these animal subjects. Through his visual investigations in these separate mediums, Ebner once again fills the gallery with his mesmerizing environments and his charismatic creatures.

Born in 1953 and received his MFA from California Institute of the Arts in 1982, Tim Ebner’s artworks were immediately included in many exhibitions, beginning in 1982. He had one artist exhibitions at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Newport Harbor Art Museum and the Kohler Arts Center. Group exhibitions his work was included in were the Phoenix Biennial, List Vsual Art Center MIT, Renaissance Society, MOCA LA (6 exhib), Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, BiNational Institute of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, traveled to Dusseldorf; New Museum, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara; San Diego Museum of Art; Art in the Embassies, Rangoon; traveling exhibition at Art Museum of South Texas and 5 other institutions, Cantonal Museum of Art, Lugano, Switzerland; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea. His artworks are in the collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.