Ellen Siebers: one wing
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 19, 6–8pm
297 Tenth Avenue, New York
Olney Gleason is pleased to present one wing, an exhibition of new paintings realized over the last year by Ellen Siebers (b. 1986, Madison, WI). Based in Hudson, New York, Siebers paints to capture the essence of a feeling, with compositions that combine elements of still life, landscape, and figure painting in a unique visual language. This exhibition coincides with Siebers’ participation in This Must Be the Place: Artists for Whitechapel Gallery, a special exhibition in recognition of the Whitechapel Gallery’s 125th anniversary, on view in London from October 7 through November 8, 2026. It marks Siebers’ first solo exhibition at Olney Gleason.
Working through multiple compositions at once, Siebers approaches painting as an act of discovery. Her atmospheric works reveal themselves over the course of several months, often finding inspiration in a variety of sources from life or media—a photograph, a film still, a figure in the clouds—but never ending there. Each work begins with an act of observation, but Siebers embraces the act of departure that follows. United by a considered attention to surrounding conditions of light, color, form, and texture, her works bear witness to the state of presence.
From her window-lit studio, Siebers paints on intimately-scaled basswood panels, magnifying her original and unique observations from daily life. Rendered with a subdued palette and loose brushwork, her works appear lit from within, pointing to their own aesthetic lyricism. Conceived and created together for this exhibition, the works on view reflect a number of archetypes and motifs that recur in Siebers’ work. The reclining figure appears and reappears, as do the silhouettes of animals, flowers, and faces. In many, Siebers sets elements within rectangular frames, as if peering through a portal into another world. These images emerge not as replicas of the physical environment, but as traces of Siebers’ creative gesture.
Ellen Siebers (b. 1986, Madison, WI) received her MFA from the University of Iowa (2012) and her BFA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (2008). She has staged solo exhibitions at Ingleby, Edinburgh (2025), Bremend Capela, Paris (2025), James Cope Gallery, Dallas (2025), and Franklin Parrasch, New York (2024), among others. She has participated in group exhibitions at the Whitechapel Gallery, London (2026), Olney Gleason (2026), Ingleby, Edinburgh (2026), March Gallery, New York (2025), The Power Station, Dallas (2025), Hannah Hoffman, Los Angeles (2025), and elsewhere. Siebers has been a recipient of The Hopper Prize (2023), Elizabeth Greenshields Grant (2023), Vermont Studio Center Grant (2014) and other awards. She lives and works in Hudson, New York.