The Frist Art Museum presents Ellen Altfest: Forever, an exhibition of oil paintings of still lifes, landscapes, and the human body by the American representational painter Ellen Altfest. Organized by the Frist Art Museum, the exhibition will be on view from May 31 through September 1, 2025.
Ellen Altfest’s paintings are recognized for surprising pairings of subjects, unorthodox cropping, and, perhaps most notably, the scrupulous rendering of naturally occurring textures and intricate surface features. Working directly from observation without photographic sources or references, she often spends months—and sometimes more than a year—on a single painting. Finding inspiration in things that are often overlooked in art—from roughly tactile rocks, tangled branches, and tree bark to the smoothness of houseplants, fabric, and men’s skin—she condenses everyday essences into expressions of absolute clarity and intensity.
Featuring approximately 20 oil paintings created over the last two decades, the exhibition recalls Emily Dickinson’s line “Forever – is composed of Nows,” an encouragement to live mindfully in the present. By connecting nature and the human figure, Altfest generates her own distilled poetry. In the spirit of Dickinson’s verse, she is a witness to the overlooked. “In painting slowly and with utmost care, Ellen Altfest turns inward, away from the noise, distractions, and inattentiveness of the contemporary world,” writes Frist Art Museum Chief Curator Mark Scala. “The attention she pays to every square millimeter of the canvas encourages our own close looking.”
In Gourds, (2006–07) the mold present on the surface of the vegetables introduces the element of decay, a central theme in many of Altfest’s works. The slow deterioration is also a reminder of the changes that can occur over the many months it takes Altfest to complete a painting. The final image is a composite of accumulated observations made over time.
Altfest sees humanlike qualities in the gourds depicted, pointing to their bodily forms and their suggestion of a crowd of beings jostling within a tight space. Making a connection between still life and figure painting, the artwork was created about the same time as her first exhibition of paintings showing partial views of male anatomy, images that range from humorous to clinical, and even subtly erotic in tone. Yet unlike many figure painters, she makes little distinction between the sections of the male body and things like still life objects or trees. Her approach is concerned as much with form as with subject.
Seeking the openness of landscape after the forced isolation of the early COVID-19 pandemic, Altfest recently painted a series of scenes from a mountain ridge in North Georgia. The first of the series, Borrowed View (2022), depicts trees framing an opening onto a faraway valley, a suggestion of the deep space, open sky, and natural light associated with traditional landscape painting. While her studio views are compressed to the point of confinement, these compact and densely painted landscapes appear to be more outwardly focused. Yet, like her still life and figure paintings, they introduce the viewer to a subjective reality that is present within otherwise unremarkable scenes.
“Altfest’s subject choices might seem of little consequence in our age of high drama,” writes Scala. “Yet her intentional focus on natural and human surfaces—and cropping of everything that might distract from the subject’s essence—encourages sharpened observation and appreciation of the poetry of everyday life.”
About the Artist
Ellen Altfest lives and works in New York City and Rising Fawn, Georgia. She received an MFA from Yale University, Connecticut, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine. She has completed residencies at SAGA House, Japan; the Zabludowicz Collection, Finland; the Bogliasco Foundation, Italy; and the Chinati Foundation, Texas. Solo exhibitions of her work have been held at the Mori Art Museum, Japan, and the New Museum, New York. She has been included in group exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts, UK; the 55th Venice Biennale, Italy; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Texas; and the National Academy Museum, New York. Altfest is represented by White Cube where she has had several exhibitions.
Program
Opening Conversation: Ellen Altfest: Forever
Saturday, May 31, 1:00 p.m.
Auditorium
Gallery admission required
Join artist Ellen Altfest and Mark Scala, Frist Art Museum chief curator, for this conversation about the exhibition Ellen Altfest: Forever.
Exhibition Credit
Organized by the Frist Art Museum
Supporter Acknowledgment
Supported in part by Clay Blevins and the Gordon CAP Gallery Fund
The Frist Art Museum is supported in part by The Frist Foundation, Metro Arts, the Tennessee Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
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More information: fristcenter.org
