BIO

Barbara Ellis is a non-objective abstract painter who lives and works in

Charlotte, NC. A native of New York City, she has resided in Charlotte since

2004. Barbara earned a B.A. in art at the City University of New York. She began

her studio practice in 2012 at Clearwater Artist Studios in Concord, NC at the

tail end of her corporate career, focusing on loose figurative and abstraction. In

2017, she attended Steve Aimone’s Master Series Residency. This experience

significantly sharpened her understanding of the non-objective art-making

process and continues to inform her process today.

Barbara has exhibited in solo, and group shows in North Carolina, including the

Mint Museum, NineEighteenNine Studio Gallery, Elder Gallery of Contemporary

Art, and Greenhill Center for NC Art. Her work has been featured in print (Art of

the State by Liza Roberts, and the 2021 NC Literary Review). Juried competitions

include 2016 ArtPop Charlotte cohort, and Artfields 2017. In 2019 Barbara and

mixed media abstract artist Mikel Frank became a team, creating large scale

paintings collaboratively. In 2024 they exhibited a series of large-scale

unstretched canvases at Nine Eighteen Nine Studio Gallery.

Barbara has studio space at the Visual and Performing Arts Center (VAPA) in

Uptown Charlotte, NC.