Tim Ebner

Tim Ebner presents his most recent works consisting of steel sculptures, 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, steel is shaped into gestural lines and languid forms in the steel pieces depicting manta rays and eels. 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 floor, and are glazed with muted and soft colors. Abstract shapes evoke feelings of water or silhouettes of fish – some have scaly or spotted textures which have been imposed onto the surface. 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 presented by digital technology, specifically backlit 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 subjects’ volume and mass. Specific painted details, like the unique glimmer of an eye, expose a new and different relationship to light while also evoking 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 & 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.

He has taught at CalArts, Claremont College, Occidental College, Los Angeles; UCLA; Art Center College of Art & Design, Pasadena; and California State University, Los Angeles since 2001 where he is currently Professor of Art.