Watercolorist and encaustic painter Ellen Koment was born in 1944 in Coney Island, New York. She attended the High School for Music and Art (now the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & the Arts) and earned her BFA in 1965 from Cooper Union Art School. She moved to the Bay Area not long after graduation, where she began exhibiting in San Francisco in 1966. In 1983 she earned her MFA in painting at University of California, Berkeley, where she studied under Elmer Bischoff and Joan Brown. Koment moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in the early 1990s where she discovered encaustic (or wax) painting, which became her primary medium. She continues to work, exhibit, and teach in Santa Fe.
SOLO EXHIBITS :
David Rothermel Contemporary, 2016, 2017
Karan Ruhlen Gallery, Santa Fe, 2013,
Box Gallery, Santa Fe, July, 2011
Box Gallery, Santa Fe, 2008
Waxlander Gallery, Santa Fe, 2005
Waxlander Gallery, Santa Fe, 2004
Helix Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2000
Ebert Gallery, San Francisco, 1997,
Ebert Gallery, San Francisco, 1995
Cynthia Woody Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona, January 1997
Vita Gallery, Portland, Oregon 1994
Shapiro Jameson Gallery, San Francisco, California 1991
Phoenix College Art Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona1991
J. Nobleit Gallery, Sonoma, California 1990, 1988, 1987
Clatsop College Gallery, Astoria, Oregon 1987
Piper Sonoma, Healdsburg, California 1986
Solano College Gallery, Fairfeld, California 1984
The Annex Gallery, Santa Rosa, California 1983
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
“Encaustic”, Longview Gallery Washington DC 2017
Two Painters, MIXX Projects, Telluride, CO 2017 ,2018
Karen Ruhlen Gallery, Santa Fe, 2013,
“Miniatures and More”, Albuquerque Museum 2012
“Waxed”, Island Museum of Art, San Juan Island, WA, 2012
Gallery Nord, San Antonio, TX 2012 (honorable mention)
Karan Ruhlen Gallery, Santa Fe, NM 2012
“Waxworks”, Portland, OR 2011
Zane Bennett Contemporary, Santa Fe,NM 2009
Originals 2007, Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, NM 2007
Waxlander Gallery 2001, 2002
Women Artists of New Mexico, National Museum of Women in the Arts, @ Lewallen Gallery,
Santa Fe, 1999,
Cup Show, Karan Ruhlen Gallery, Santa Fe, NM 1999,
Moxley/Ross Naranjo Santa Fe, NM 1998
Santa Fe International Academy of Art, 1997
Animals, Waxlander Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico 1996
Fenix Gallery, Taos, New Mexico 1995
Annual Exhibit, The Oregon Arts Council, Salem, Oregon 1993
Introductions, Solomon Dubnick Gallery, Sacramento, California 1992 Opening/Closing,
Artspace, Los Angeles, California 1991
Balance Brought Forward, Artspace, Los Angeles, California 1991
Arts 1990, California Museum of Art, Santa Rosa, California 1990
Arts 1989, California Museum of Art, Santa Rosa, California 1989
Painting Invitational, Bowery Gallery, New York City, New York 1988
Four Artists, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, California 1988
The San Francisco Arts Festival Juried Exhibit, San Francisco, California 1984 Juried
Exhibition, The Richmond Art Center, Richmond, California 1969
New Painters, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA 1967
AWARDS AND COMMISSIONS
2018 Gottlieb Foundation Artist Grant
2013 International Encaustic Artists’ La Vendeeme Award for excellence in encaustic
education
Krause Residence, Trump Tower NYC 2008
Gottlieb Foundation Medical Emergency Grant ,1998
Creative Work Grant, University of New Mexico 2000
Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Residency Grant
Sonoma County Visual Artist's Grant (NEA)
Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Residency Grant, 1981
McDonald Mansion, Stained Glass Commission
REVIEWS
Santa Fean NOW 2015,2016
Pasatiempo, Santa Fe New Mexican, August 2014
Pasatiempo, New Mexican, April 1996
Pasatiempo, New Mexican, February 1996
Painting for Katy "Bird" Magnunsen, Artweek, Jan 1993
Landscapes, Press Democrat, 1990
Four Artists, Oakland Tribune, 1985
New Painters at SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA 1966
EDUCATION:
M.A. Painting, UC Berkeley, 1983
BFA Cooper Union Art School, New York City,1965
High School of Music and Art, NYC, 1961