177. Ellie MacGarry - Ties

2026
Oil on panel
17.8 x 12.7 x 2 cm

Working across drawing and painting, the artist’s practice explores transitional moments of silence, intimacy, and interiority — touching, dressing, dancing, and the subtle exchanges that occur between bodies and spaces. Through recurring motifs such as hands, bows, windows, and shirts, the work examines everyday gestures of connection, distance, and touch.

Often employing cropped, close-up compositions that verge on abstraction, the paintings draw attention to texture, light, and the psychologically charged space between figures and objects. Boundaries and thresholds recur throughout the work, with windows, openings, and fragments of domestic space acting as metaphors for emotional proximity and separation. Through restrained imagery and heightened attention to surface, the paintings create moments of suspended tension and quiet reflection.

The artist completed an MFA in Painting at the Slade School of Fine Art, London (2016–2018), following a BA in Fine Art at the University of Leeds (2010–2014).

Recent exhibitions include Drawing Biennial at Drawing Room, London (2024 & 2026); Milk Punch at Connelly Martin Gallery, Austin, USA (2026); What Remains of the Day at General Assembly, London (2025); Hold Tight at Haricot Gallery, London (solo, 2025); Game Time at Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, Los Angeles (2025); Seem Both Distant and So Close at Warbling, London (2025); XXS at Brintz + County, Palm Beach (2025); Borrowed Drawings at Cubitt Artists, London (2024); Echo at Cedric Bardawil, London (solo, 2024); Pacific Breeze II at White Conduit Projects, London (2023); Full House at Canopy Collections, London (2023); Cure3 at Bonhams, London (2023); Stage Effects at Kate MacGarry, London (2022); Disappearing Act at Steve Turner, Los Angeles (solo, 2021); and Your Hand is a Warm Stone at Steve Turner, Los Angeles (2021).

Awards and residencies include an Artist Residency at the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong (2018), the Melville Nettleship Prize and Felix Slade Scholarship at the Slade School of Fine Art (2018), the Berkofsky Arts Award at the University of Leeds (2014), the Ben Read Graduate Acquisition Fund with Leeds City Art Gallery (2014), and the East Street Arts Graduate Residency (2014).