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

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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

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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

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EDUCATION:

M.A. Painting, UC Berkeley, 1983

BFA Cooper Union Art School, New York City,1965

High School of Music and Art, NYC, 1961

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