Selected Works

Current

151, 2019-04, …um den Zufall am Schopf zu fassen!, oil on canvas, 82 x 90″ (208 x 228cm)

150, 2018-12, ANIMVS·SVMMISSVS [post], oil on linen (installation), 60 x 90″ (152 x 228cm)

149, 2018-12, There is one story and one story only., oil on linen, 60 x 90″ (152 x 228cm)

148, 2019-08, Earth vs. Space, oil on linen, 60 x 90″ (152 x 228cm)

147, 2018-08, Begjær… og Seterjentene (Lust), oil on linen, 82 x 90″ (208 x 228cm)

136, 2018-01, Montagne d’Or (der Gute Berg), oil on linen, 60 x 90″ (152 x 228cm)

135, 2017-11, Concerning the heavy-handed use of symbols., oil on linen, 60 x 90″ (152 x 228cm)

123, 2017-03, Helping people to achieve their potentialities., oil on linen, 60 x 90″ (152 x 228cm)

122, 2017-02, я иду с мечем, судия, oil on linen, 60 x 90″ (152 x 228cm)

121, 2017-01, Alles ist Schoen, oil on linen, 60 x 90″ (152 x 228cm)

120, 2016-05, Блис Белай, oil on linen, 60 x 90″ (152 x 228cm)

88, 2009-09, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, oil on linen, 58 x 90″ (148 x 228cm)

Unfinished

152, 2020-01, OOBE (Le Rêve— Temple of Artemis, Song of the Sleeping Forest, Symbol of Life, Love, and Aesthetics) [unfinished], oil on linen, 60 x 90″ (152 x 228cm)

154, 2020-05, L’Apocalypse des Animaux [unfinished], oil on linen, 82 x 90″ (208 x 228cm)

155, 2020-06, Black Hula (Satellite Serenade/Brightness Hiding) [unfinished], oil on linen, 82 x 90″ (208 x 228cm)

156, Now is the best time of your life

Older

132, 2017-11, Island, oil on panel, 24 x 36″ (detail)

130, 2017-07, La Victoria, oil on panel, 27 x 40″ (detail)

126, 2017-04, Electrum, oil on panel, 16 x 22″ (detail)

125, 2017-04, Nothing, oil on panel, 20 x 30″ (detail)

124, 2017-01, 1960’s Institutional Turquoise, oil on panel, 20 x 26″

111, 2012-01, Violet, oil on panel, 16 x 20″

105, 2010-11, Lyre Plyre, oil on panel, 17.5 x 23.5″

101, 2010-04, Heidi, oil on panel, 18 x 24″

99, 2010-04, Marianna, graphite on paper, 16 x 20″

97, 2009-12, Present, oil on panel, 56 x 42″ (detail)

93, 2009-10, Julia, oil on panel, 20 x 30″

92, 2009-10, Vanitas, oil on panel, 18 x 20″

83, 2008-11, Evening star, oil on panel, 30 x 56″

77, 2008-05, The Cure Within, oil on panel, 14 x 20″

76, 2008-05, Rachel Cupo, oil on panel, 24 x 30″ (detail)

71, 2008-03, Vulcan berimbau, oil on panel, 19 x 40″

67, 2007-12, Belle, oil on panel, 18 x 24″

63, 2007-08, Artemis, oil on panel, 60 x 60″ (detail)

62, 2007-05, This kingdom by the sea, oil on panel, 18 x 18″

61, 2007-05, Montagne d’Or, oil on panel, 14 x 22″

59, 2007-03, My Rosy Monique, oil on panel, 16 x 20″

58, 2007-03, Eurydice, oil on panel, 40 x 37″

57, 2007-02, Pink snow, oil on panel, 44 x 42″

53, 2006-04, Khloris, oil on panel, 36 x 60″

49, 2005-07, Chinese box, oil on panel, 24 x 48″

46, 2004-10, Where the moon goes, oil on panel, 18 x 24″

45, 2004-09, Double flowering plum, oil on panel, 17 x 23″

17, 2001-10, Ruth, oil on panel, 18 x 24″ (detail)

3, 1998-03, Rachel, oil on panel, 18 x 24″

2, 1998-03, Elizabeth S., oil on panel, 18 x 24″

Miscellaneous

Audio Tour: RETOUR [post], 2023, binaural museum tour and guided visualization

Audio Tour: Souvenir [post], 2022, binaural museum tour and guided visualization

Custom Binaural Microphone Chassis, 2022, industrial design

ANIMVS·SVMMISSVS [post], 2018, installation

Custom 50L6 Valve State Amplifiers [post], 2015 – 2019, prototype chassis art, industrial design, and electronics for CoffmanLabs

The Great Clock of Time [post], 2013, album art and dub plate design for Kris Weston

Honors

Educator-Lecturer, 2018, lecture series, “Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Draftsmanship”, The People’s Colloquium, Portland, OR

Artist-in-Residence, 2009 – 2010, 2016 – 2017, Splendorporium, Portland, OR

Artist-in-Residence, 1996, 1997, Overton High for Creative and Performing Arts, Memphis, TN

University of Memphis, 1993 – 1995, 4-year Fine Art Merit Scholarship

1992 Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts, MTSU

Selected Exhibitions

July 2020, Untitled Enthymeme, solo show, CHAOS Gallery, Portland, OR

May 2019, Unicorn, solo show, CHAOS Gallery, Portland

December 2018, Encyclical, group show, Elisabeth Jones Art Center, Portland

August 2018, The Seven Deadly Sins, group show, Splendorporium, Portland

November 2017, Self Care, group show, Ford Gallery, Portland.

October 2017, Value Test I, solo show, Portland.

July 2012, obj≠ction — Gender, Sex, Law, and Social Change, group show, Lewis & Clark College, Portland.

December 2010, Insolitus: Suda, Cifuentes, Wall, Skotia Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.

July 2010, Naked, group show, Skotia Gallery, Santa Fe.

June 2010, Elliott Wall, solo show, Splendorporium, Portland.

June 2010, Two of a Kind, group show, Froelick Gallery, Portland.

February 2010, Erotic Art, group show, Beet gallery, Portland.

September 2009, Elliott Wall and Andy Paiko, group show, Splendorporium, Portland.

August 2006 – June 2009, (Various), Manette Gallery, Portland.

December 2008, Puddletown, group show, Compound Gallery, Portland.

May 2008, Buckwheat & Grits, solo show, Carr Gallery, Idaho Falls, ID.

June 2006, Alien, group show, Mark Woolley Gallery, Portland.

October 2005, Eyes Follow You, solo show, Concrete, Portland.

July 2005, Taste, group show, Thomson-Peterson, San Francisco, CA.

January 2005, Something of Our Common Feeling, group show, Delta Axis, Memphis, TN.

November 1998, Jean-Luc Godard, group show, Hideaway, Memphis.

May 1998, solo show, Edge Gallery, Memphis.

September 1994, group show, University of Memphis Gallery.

Press

Art exhibit ‘Unicorn’ goes big with exciting countercultural themes by Jeffrey Gillespie, Oregonian, May 2016

Vous n’aurez pas la peau de Maman Küsters by Rod Glacial, mention, Vice Magazine (France), March 2016

Insolitus: Suda/Cifuentes/Wall by Richard Tobin, THE Magazine, p.48, February 2011

People are Strange by Casey Sanchez, Pasatiempo, p.42, December 17, 2010

The Oregonian, Rebel Galleries, A&E, April 27, 2007.

The Oregonian, Artwalk feature, March 2007.

Portland Monthly, On the Town, p.233, October 2005.

Commercial Appeal, A splash of great painting by Fredric Koeppel, January 21, 2005.

Facing It: Nine artists explore human expression by Carol Knowles, Memphis Flyer, February 18, 2005.

Other

Maman Küsters, Happy Meal, (vinyl), album art, June 2023

Maman Küsters, Alice de Lewis Glisse, album art, April 2020

Maman Küsters, L’Extase Et La Terreur, (vinyl), album art, April 2020

Lackluster (Esa Ruoho), Spoo/Something Bothersome, album art, April 2020

Lackluster (Esa Ruoho), Catch23​/​Kosmos9, album art, March 2020

Lackluster (Esa Ruoho), Ubiquity: Bolivian Angel Remix, album art, February 2020

Maman Küsters, Cherche Querelle, album art, December 2019

Holly Andres, commission, seven 82 x 90″ painted backdrops for photoshoot, May 2018

Dale Cooper Quartet & The Dictaphones: «[We try to bring humor into the darkness]», Rolling Stone Russia, Metamanoir, album art bandcamp embed, November 2017

Maman Küsters, Sous La Peau De Maman Küsters, album art, 2016

Holly Andres, commission, painted backdrop for photoshoot, December 2013

Dale Cooper Quartet & The Dictaphones, Metamanoir, album art, 2011

Themes and Foundations of Art (ISBN 0538429739) by Elizabeth Katz, pp. 357, 370, 1995.

Kind Words

“…An abundance of lush imagery that draws upon multiple themes, from Aristotelian philosophy to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The paintings are painstakingly produced and filled with a technical excellence that does not rely on creative cliches. The artist riffs on themes of occultism, eroticism and sacred geometry in a show that is exciting and countercultural. […] Wall’s artwork is carnal, lyrical, original and uplifting. His subject matter is in distinct contrast to that of some of the safer art venues around town… it’s well worth a visit if your aesthetic interests expand beyond the traditional.”

from Art exhibit ‘Unicorn’ goes big with exciting countercultural themes by Jeffrey Gillespie, The Oregonian, May 20, 2019

“The wild card of the bunch is Elliott Wall…. His standout piece in the Insolitus show is Lyre Plyre… [he] twists the woman’s locks into an up-do that is part Cleopatra and part 1920s flapper encased in a baroque glass frame – so ersatz rococo it would be at home in a Tijuana watering hole or at least a self-consciously hip dive bar.”

from People are Strange by Casey Sanchez, Pasatiempo, December 17, 2010

“Wall follows the nineteenth century convention for figure studies involving a nude female, in which the model is portrayed as the guise of some classical goddess or mythic maiden…. The challenge to realist painting from photography, dating from the late nineteenth century, fades today in comparison with the mimetic capacity of digital technology to create and manipulate high-definition, 3-D imagery.  Perhaps the only effective response can be found in the work on view in Insolitus, one which is marked, in the approach of all three artists, by an overriding sense of creative control and an underlying concern for poetic import.”

from Insolitus: Suda/Cifuentes/Wall by Richard Tobin, THE Magazine, February 2011

“…Portland, Oregon, artist Elliott Wall’s No One Wants To See This explores sexuality and mortality with postmodern appropriation and esoteric references… a complex and provocative work.”

from Nine Artists Explore Human Expression by Carol Knowles, The Memphis Flyer, February 18, 2005

“Skill comes into play in a fashion that reaches for the sublime… The ambiguous conjunction of elements here is unsettling in its marriage of allure, eroticism, religion and incantation, all the more so because Wall’s technical agility… is utterly frictionless, almost luxurious.”

from A Splash of Great Painting by Fredric Koeppel, Commercial Appeal, January 21, 2005

Little Bird: “Which emerging artist do you think more people should know about?”

Andy Paiko: “Elliot Wall, A Portland, OR painter and evil genius.”

[To contextualize this amazing remark, he is only pointing out the very true fact that “evil” is a relative term, and that I am simply not as virtuous or excellent as he is— EW]

100 Years of La Victoria — Thank you

LA VICTORIA Portland Art Contest [audition interview, slightly edited]

Tell me a little about your background. (Where did you grow up? Did you attend college? Are you an artist for a living or is it a hobby? If it’s a hobby, what do you do for a living?)

I was born in Memphis, TN and was raised mainly there and throughout Florida— my parents were nursing home administrators, so in the afternoons and summers I sort of grew up in various nursing homes and retirement communities. I attended one of the great fine-art magnet high schools in the country (my art teacher went on to become National Art Teacher of the Year), then studied at The University of Memphis under a full art scholarship. In 2002 I moved to Portland to work as a muralist, and soon opened my own studio-gallery for a few years. I attended Portland State University briefly for Linguistics and Russian, before deciding that I was probably better off doing art!

Explain your art work and style.

The best way to describe my work might be “life-size, polychrome, quasi-photorealistic figurative oil-paintings”, and with regard to the subjects, I’ve felt that my artistic prototypes were Klimt, Modigliani, or Van Gogh, in the sense that they wanted to consecrate sincere humanity and humanness.

Where do you draw your inspiration from?

After school, when I was able to begin doing the art I really wanted to do, I was drawn to doing the simplest kind of art imaginable— just portraits of my friends. When I met my wife-to-be, I went on to do probably close to fifty life-size paintings of her over the years. Lately I’ve been doing larger pieces where the starting point and centerpiece is an idea, and the surface reality is only a means to the end of exploring the idea; the art itself is meant to be didactic, working to be an instrument toward helping people achieve their potentialities.

What is your proudest accomplishment? 

This is a complicated question to answer fully, but my proudest accomplishment is absolutely without question, in essence, the realization of what I’ve just mentioned, which is that I do have the means to help people achieve their potentialities, and that I actually acted on this somehow. When I began learning Russian, I thought I should volunteer to help immigrants learn English, because it would help me learn too, so I contacted IRCO, the Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization. Over the next year and a half I actually ended up through this project doing 400 hours of volunteer work (barely any of it having anything to do with Russian), teaching English and computer skills to refugee and immigrant children and adults.

What’s your favorite work you’ve ever created? Why? 

I don’t know! There are definitely some works I like more than others, and there are certain favorites, and certain ones I hope I never have to sell, but with almost all of them I don’t even think about them much until I take a moment to step out of my day to look at a piece and let my mind drift back to recall the time and place of when I was making it. The first pieces I did after moving to Portland are very special, and the capstone among these of this golden time I feel would have to be a painting of my wife called Double Flowering Plum, because more than in any other work there is a soul and spirit present that is to me almost miraculous.

What does “Modern West Coast Lifestyle” mean to you?

This phrase paints a vivid picture for almost anyone— there is only whether one can find a way to put it into words and do the picture justice. Because when I moved here in 2002, I drove to Portland from Memphis via I-40, and I was able to see and feel, mile by mile, America literally transform completely into the place I had dreamt of. Personally, as a discontent of the East Coast and The South, The Modern West Coast Lifestyle is something I’m dead serious about. My wife moved here at 18 from North Dakota, so she also is a Seeker. Everyone wants to be here, despite many grave social problems— there are social problems everywhere— but here there is to me a kind of hopefulness and freshness. It’s even in the air and soil. I started feeling it around Flagstaff, and felt it keenly in Death Valley (even though I blew my clutch out) and all the rest of the way since.

The Modern West Coast Lifestyle is to me the aesthetic manifestation of unbelievable creative and intellectual capital and the untold millions of self-determining Seekers. It is a forward looking, hopeful culture unto itself with inclusive, highly socially felicitous values.

I think a lot of us would go further West if we could, but for now this is the end of the line. Further West may not even be a place on Earth at all…!