Ellen Sollod is an interdisciplinary artist based in the Pacific Northwest. Her practice includes large scale, site-specific public art, multimedia temporary installations, artist books, photography, photo-based works, and occasional sound and video projects. Her work is deeply embedded in research and experimentation. Diverse in form and subject matter, much of her studio-based work weaves the personal with the political, while her site-based works explore the psychological intersection of landscape and memory.

Ellen complements her independent studio practice with interdisciplinary collaborations with scientists, landscape architects and other artists. Sollod is an artist/activist, grounded in a commitment to civic, environmental and social responsibility. As such she often works outside traditional art venues, such as creating installations in nature, historic houses, or using the USPS as a vehicle for distributing the work to selected audiences.

She is represented in museum and university collections, including Yale University Center for the Book, NYPL Spencer Collection of Prints and Drawings, University of Washington Suzallo Library Special Collections, University of Puget Sound Collins Library, University of Delaware and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Her work has been included in exhibitions across the country, including the Museum of Northwest Art, Bellevue Arts Museum, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Museum of Outdoor Art, Jack Straw Cultural Center, New York Center for Photographic Arts, New York Center for the Book and the Southeast Center for Photography.

Major public commissions include Seattle’s Mercer Corridor, Brightwater Wastewater Treatment Plant, San Jose Light Rail, Olympia, WA Gateway Corridor, Bellingham, WA Arts District, Pier Park (Portland, OR), Morrill Meadows Park (Kent, WA), Harborview Medical Center (Seattle, WA).

Ellen has received artist residencies and awards from Ucross Foundation, Playa, Brush Creek Arts Foundation, Willapa Bay AIR, Centrum, 4Culture, Allied Arts and the Northwest Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in Italy.

Born in NY and raised in South Carolina, she moved successively north and west, finally alighting in Seattle, where she has made her home for the last 30 years. Ellen has a BA in art history from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a MA from the Institute for Urban Studies, University of Maryland. She served as Assistant Director of the Dance Program of the National Endowment for the Arts, Executive Director of the Colorado Council on the Arts and Humanities and the Seattle Arts Commission. Since 1993, she has devoted herself to her public and studio practice, maintaining an activist role on behalf of the arts in civic life. Ellen initiated and directed the Study Abroad Program, Art and Innovation in Lyon, France for the University of Washington Comparative History of Ideas program. She served as Vice Chair of the Seattle Design Commission and as a member of the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture Public Art Advisory Committee. She was recently named Honorary AIA by the American Institute of Architects in Seattle.

Ellen has traveled extensively to Europe, SE Asia, Africa and Latin America.

A complete resume can be viewed here.