About the artist:

Ellen Lanyon (born 1926, Chicago, IL) studied at the University of Chicago; earning her BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and MFA at The University of Iowa, The Courtauld Institute University of London, UK. Lanyon’s work has been the subject of eleven museum exhibitions, including The National Collection of American Art, Smithsonian, a twenty-five year retrospective organized and traveled by the Krannert Museum to The McNay Museum, San Antonio/The Chicago Cultural Center/The Stamford Art Museum and the Ewing Gallery, University of Tennessee. The exhibition was curated by Stephen Prokopoff and a catalog published with an essay by Donald Kuspit. A thirty year survey, organized by the National Museum for Women in the Arts was curated by Susan Sterling and it was accompanied by a catalog with an essay by Debra Bricker Balken. A third major retrospective curated by Esther Sparks forThe Brauer Museum of Valparaiso University and traveled to The Washington County Museum, Hagerstown, MD. Seventy-five solo gallery exhibitions include those with Fairweather Hardin, B.C. Holland, Richard Gray, Frumkin Struve, Jean Albano, Valerie Carberry and Printworks all of Chicago. Harcus Krakow of Boston, Barbara Fendrick of Washington DC, Pavel Zoubok, Julius Carlbach, Virginia Zabriskie, Susan Caldwell, Monique Knowlton, Pretto-Berland-Hall, Andre Zarre and Jan Abrams Fine Arts all of New York. Odyssia Gallery of Rome and New York, Documenta Gallery of Turon, Italy and The Galerie du Dragon of Paris. Selected group exhibitions include American Federation of Arts Traveling Invitationals/Chicago and Vicinity Annuals and American Biennials, both at The Art Institute of Chicago/The Library of Congress/The San Francisco Museum of Art/The Corcoran Museum/The Denver Museum/The Joslyn Museum/ The Los Angeles County Museum/The McNay Art Museum/The Walker Art Center/The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago/MOMA/ The Brooklyn Museum/The Metropolitan Museum of Art/ Galleria Comunale D'Arte, Arezzo/The Bienale di Venezia, Venice, Italy. The DC Moore Gallery and David Findlay Jr. both of New York. Works have been commissioned and/or published by the Landfall Press, Chicago/University of South Dakota/University of Houston/University of Tennessee/National Museum for Women in the Arts/Four Brothers Press, Chicago/Pondside Press, Rhinebeck, NY/Solo Press, NYC/ Print Studio, Cambridge, UK, The Perishable Press of Mt Horeb, Wisconsin/The Red Ozier Press of NYC and Printed Matter, NYC. Paintings/murals have been commissioned by The US Department of the Interior, Bicentennial Project/The State of Illinois Building, Chicago/The Workingman's Cooperative Bank of Boston/The State Capitol, Springfield, Illinois, Illinois Bell/The Art In Public Places Project, Miami Beach, Florida/The Riverwalk Gateway Project for the City of Chicago and The Hiawatha Public Art & Design Project for Minneapolis, MN. Lanyon has received several Armstrong Prize Awards and a Logan Prize from The Art Institute of Chicago, A Fulbright Study Grant, Cassandra Foundation Grant, Herewood Lester Cook Foundation Award, two National Endowment For The Arts Visual Artists Awards, a Florsheim Art Foundation Grant, several Yaddo Fellowships, an Ossabaw Island Project Fellowship, and two Purchase Awards from The American Academy of Arts and Letters. Elected to the Union League Club, Chicago, The Century Association, New York and The National Academy of Design, NY Awarded an Honorary Doctorate from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Having taught for almost forty years at universities and professional art schools, Lanyon is now a retired Associate Professor of The Cooper Union, New York, NY.