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Press Release
| Zavier Ellis |
| Sites of Conflict |
| Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles |
| EXHIBITION DATES: Saturday 14 June–Saturday 26 July 2025 |
| EXHIBITION HOURS : Tuesday–Saturday 11am-5pm |
| ADDRESS: Torrance Art Museum, 3320 Civic Center Drive, Torrance, CA 90503, United States |
| CONTACT: Email: TorranceArtMuseum@TorranceCA.Gov | Tel: +1 310-618-6388 |
| Torrance Art Museum presents British artist and curator Zavier Ellis in ’Sites of Conflict’, an expansive solo exhibition interrogating the ideological battlegrounds that have shaped — and continue to shape — global power structures. Through richly layered abstraction, collage, and textual intervention, Ellis constructs a visual matrix of historical and contemporary struggles that encompass revolutions, resistance, protest, and the machinery of propaganda. At the heart of the exhibition is the monumental work ’Dēmokratía’ (6.6 x 9.8 feet / 2 x 3 meters), a dense palimpsest that fuses events as apparently wide-ranging as the founding of the United States and its legacy of slavery, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Haitian Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, and ongoing crises in Israel and Ukraine. Ellis interweaves historical and contemporary protagonists such as Moses, Robespierre, Cromwell, Trump, and Musk — drawing lines between rhetoric, propaganda, and power. In so doing, he reveals the interconnectedness between seemingly disparate ideologies, exposing the hidden scaffolding of influence that runs beneath the public narrative of power and conflict. ‘Sites of Conflict’ is not a historical survey but a psychological mapping of repetition and manipulation. By engaging with historical rupture and means of information warfare, Ellis exposes the recurrent cycles by which propaganda, nationalism, and ideological polarisation operate. The utopian promises of the French Revolution, the Civil Rights struggle for equality, and today’s disinformation-fuelled culture wars are not presented as discrete episodes but as interconnected nodes in a rhizomatic network — a structure of non-linear relations in which histories fold into one another and ideologies reappear in mutated form. Within this framework, Ellis’s practice denotes a history not of linear progression, but of recursive transformation, where familiar power structures return under new guises, and rupture becomes a rhythm. Underlying Ellis’s visual language is a deep engagement with the mechanisms of political messaging. His fascination with the language of authority and reactionary groups — how slogans, manifestos, and branding operate as tools of persuasion — finds its form in the surface of the paintings themselves. In ’Dēmokratía’ and across the exhibition, Ellis draws from the visual vernacular of public messaging: street posters, political notices, protest signage, and scrawled graffiti. These elements appear not as quotation, but as residue — partially obscured, torn, scratched out, or layered, as if pasted over one another in the chaos of a city wall. The works reference this palimpsestic surface: rough, distressed grounds bearing traces of pigment, decayed paper, and embedded text that reveal both the erosion of time and the aggression of erasure. These scarred surfaces function as both metaphor and medium for the contested terrain of public discourse, where ideology is never static but constantly inscribed, challenged, and rewritten. In this way, ‘Sites of Conflict’ offers a complex confrontation with the past as it merges with the present — a visual field where history repeats, breaks, and reasserts itself. Ellis invites us to look not for a single truth, but for the unstable patterns through which meaning and power circulate. As both artist and curator, Zavier Ellis is known for his deep engagement with the psychological and socio-political. ‘Sites of Conflict’ is his most ambitious and urgent statement to date: an inquiry into the logics of control, resistance, and return — and the fractured surfaces upon which our shared histories are written. About Zavier Ellis: Zavier Ellis read History of Modern Art at Manchester University (1993-1996) before undertaking a Masters in Fine Art at City & Guilds of London Art School (2003-2005). He has exhibited alongside contemporary and 20th century artists including Peter Blake, Michael Craig-Martin, Marcus Harvey, Damien Hirst, Julian Opie, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Derek Ridgers, Antoni Tàpies, Mark Titchner, Gavin Turk, Keith Tyson and Mark Wallinger. Ellis has exhibited globally including Museum der Moderne, Salzburg; Pera Museum, Istanbul; Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles; Saatchi Gallery, London; Klaipėda Culture Communication Centre, Klaipėda; Royal West Academy, Bristol; Dean Clough, Halifax; Paul Stolper, London; Galerie Heike Strelow, Frankfurt; Raid Projects, Los Angeles; ENIA Gallery, Pireas; and Blond Contemporary, London. His work is featured in prominent private collections including the seminal Sammlung Annette und Peter Nobel, Zurich and Beth Rudin DeWoody, West Palm Beach. For artwork list email office@zavierellis.com |
Biography - Zavier Ellis
| BORN | 1973 | |
| EDUCATION | ||
| 2003-2005 | MA Fine Art (painting) | City & Guilds of London Art School |
| 1993-1996 | BA (Hons) History of Modern Art | University of Manchester |
| ONE PERSON EXHIBITONS | ||
| 2025 | Sites of Conflict | Torrance Art Museum, Torrance |
| 2024 | Revolt Repeat | Gramercy Park Studios, London |
| 2024 | Flying Leaps | City Streets including Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield |
| 2014 | Type 1 Zealotry (curated by Edward Lucie-Smith) | Cock ’n’ Bull Gallery, London |
| 2000 | New Paintings | Clapham Art Gallery, London |
| SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS | ||
| 2024 | Whitstable Arts Festival | Horsebridge Arts Centre, Whitstable |
| 2024 | Chronology (with Sam Jackson) | Michele Mack Gallery, New York |
| 2024 | Art Through Time: Contemporary Reflections (curated by Virginia Damtsa) | Alon Zakaim Fine Art, London |
| 2024 | Art Through Time: Contemporary Reflections (curated by Virginia Damtsa) | Alon Zakaim Fine Art, London |
| 2023 | In It For The Long Haul (curated by Robert Curcio) | Lichtundfire, New York |
| 2023 | Dirty Synth (curated by Tony Benn) | The Globe Taavern, London |
| 2023 | PREVIEW | Gramercy Park Studios, London |
| 2022 | And Now the Good News: Works from the Nobel Collection (curated by Christoph Doswald) | Pera Museum, Istanbul |
| 2022 | DELTA GAMMA | Saatchi Gallery, London |
| 2021 | Repetition (with Graham Dolphin & Sam Jackson) | The Depot x CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2020 | PROJECT PAPYROPHILIA | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2018 | The Discontents (with Matthew Collings, Tommaso Corvi-Mora, Matthew Higgs, Max Presneill) | Bermondsey Project Space, London |
| 2018 | Sawdust and Sequins: The Art of the Circus (curated by Fiona Robinson & Nathalie Levy) | Royal West of England Academy, Bristol |
| 2018 | Face Value2 | Old Truman Brewery, London |
| 2017 | In Memoriam Francesca Lowe | Old Truman Brewery, London |
| 2017 | Political Gestures | Galerie Heike Strelow, Frankfurt |
| 2017 | Expressive Gestures | Galerie Heike Strelow, Frankfurt |
| 2017 | Back to Basics: Text (curated by Artemis Potamianou) | ENIA Gallery, Pireas |
| 2016 | Black Paintings (curated by Heike Strelow) | Galerie Heike Strelow, Frankfurt |
| 2016 | Semiotic Guerrilla Warfare part III (curated by David Hancock) | Dean Clough, Halifax |
| 2015 | Semiotic Guerrilla Warfare part I (curated by David Hancock) | Paper, Manchester |
| 2015 | An Odyssey | Torrance Art Museum, Torrance |
| 2015 | Cult of the Concrete (curated by Alexis Milne) | Joey Ramone Gallery, Rotterdam |
| 2014 | The Opinion Makers 2 | Londonewcastle, London |
| 2014 | Cultus Deorum (curated by Zavier Ellis) | Saatchi Gallery, London |
| 2014 | Cathal Smyth: A Comfortable Man (curated by MC Llamas) | Wilton’s Music Hall, London |
| 2014 | WATCHMEN: Surveillance and The Flâneur (curated by Max Presneill and Lisa DeSmidt | Torrance Art Museum, Torrance |
| 2014 | Stations of the Cross: Above and Below | St Marylebone Parish Church, London |
| 2013 | First Come First Served | Lion and Lamb, London |
| 2013 | London Abstrakt | BRAUBACHfive, Frankfurt |
| 2013 | Macmillan De'Longhi Art Auction | Royal College of Art, London |
| 2013 | I Love You Because (curated by Chloe Mortimer and Harry Pye) | A-side B-side Gallery, London |
| 2013 | Photo & Print | Charlie Dutton Gallery, London |
| 2012 | Alter | VEGAS, London |
| 2012 | Contemporary Visions | Beers.Lambert Contemporary Art, London |
| 2012 | The Impossible Heap | Galerie8, London |
| 2011 | London International (curated by Edward Lucie-Smith) | Klaipėda Culture Communication Centre, Klaipėda |
| 2011 | THE FUTURE CAN WAIT presents: Polemically Small (curated by Zavier Ellis, Edward Lucie-Smith, Max Presneill & Simon Rumley) | Torrance Art Museum, Torrance |
| 2011 | Polemically Small (curated by Edward Lucie-Smith) | Garboushian Gallery, Beverley Hills |
| 2011 | Stockholm Syndrome (curated by Alexis Milne) | Studio B3.2, London |
| 2010 | Rizing Stars of Bethnalhem | High Roller Society, London |
| 2010 | PressArt: Die Sammlung Annette und Peter Nobel | Museum der Moderne, Salzburg |
| 2010 | The Term “Reality”: Collages 1970 - 2010 | Paul Stolper, London |
| 2008 | Swap Meet | Raid Projects, Los Angeles |
| 2007 | Dorian Gray Project: Happy Days (curated by Infinity Bunce & Katherine Lubar) | John Jones Project Space, London |
| 2006 | Obsession (curated by Robin Mason) | Sartorial Contemporary Art, London |
| 2006 | Wish You Were Here | A.I.R. Gallery, New York |
| 2006 | The Mouse That Roared (curated by Kieron Dennis) | Project 133, London |
| 2006 | The Circus Show (curated by Marcus Cope & Stephanie Moran) | Three Colts Gallery, London |
| 2005 | Young Gods edition III (curated by Zavier Ellis) | Clapham Art Gallery, London |
| 2003 | 100 Sale of the Century | The Arts Theatre, London |
| 2003 | Gallery Artists 2002-2003 | Clapham Art Gallery, London |
| 2003 | 100 | Studio Voltaire, London |
| 2002 | Studio Voltaire Open | Studio Voltaire, London |
| 2000 | 14x14 | Mafuji Gallery, London |
| BIBLIOGRAPHY | ||
| 2018 | FaceValue2 | Exhibition Catalogue, Jealous East, London |
| 2016 | PRESS ART: Die Sammlung Annette und Peter Nobel Vol. II | Stämpfli (ISBN 978-3-7272-1459-2) |
| 2013 | Just who is Zavier Ellis? by Mike von Joel | State Magazine, Edition 09, January 2013 |
| 2011 | London International | Exhibition Catalogue, Klaipėda Culture Communication Centre, Klaipeda |
| 2010 | PRESS ART: Die Sammlung Annette und Peter Nobel | Stämpfli (ISBN 978-3-7272-1134-8) |
| COLLECTIONS | ||
| Beth Rudin DeWoody, West Palm Beach | ||
| Julian & Stephanie Grose, Adelaide | ||
| Werner Grub, London | ||
| Ann Lewis, Sydney / New York | ||
| Sammlung Annette und Peter Nobel, Zurich | ||
| Soho House, London | ||
| Soho Warehouse, Los Angeles | ||
| 180 The Strand, London | ||
| Private collections in Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, United Kingdom & United States |
Biography - Sam Jackson
| EDUCATION | ||
| 2004 - 2007 | Post-Graduate Diploma Fine Art | Royal Academy Schools, London |
| 2000 - 2003 | BA (Hons) Fine Art | Middlesex University, London |
| ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS | ||
| 2023 | Retrospective: Fifteen Years (curated by Zavier Ellis) | GIANT GALLERY, Bournemouth |
| 2023 | Correspondences | Galerie Isabelle Gounod, Paris |
| 2022 | Autumn Song | Gramercy Park Studios, London |
| 2021 | Collaborators | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2019 | Chronicles | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2018 | RUN TO ME (with Derek Ridgers | curated by Faye Dowling) | Galerie Heike Strelow, Frankfurt |
| 2017 | RUN TO ME (with Derek Ridgers | curated by Faye Dowling) | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2014 | Colossal Youth (Part 2) | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2014 | Colossal Youth (Part 1) | VOLTA, New York |
| 2011 | The Fearful Joy | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2009 | Vas Deferens | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2008 | The Cabinet | BRAUBACHfive, Frankfurt |
| 2008 | Boundaries | Thomas Williams Fine Art, London |
| SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS | ||
| 2024 | Sometimes Always (collaborative paintings with Zavier Ellis) | Gramercy Park Studios, London |
| 2023 | Rose Garden | Terrace Gallery, London |
| 2022 | An eXhibition of SMALL things with BIG ideas (curated by Paul Carey-Kent) White | Conduit Projects, London |
| 2022 | DELTA GAMMA (curated by Zavier Ellis) | Saatchi Gallery, London |
| 2021 | Repetition | The Depot x CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2020 | Picture Palace | Transition Gallery, London |
| 2020 | Words that transform, vibrate and glow: 13 paintings inspired by the lyrics of Nick Cave (curated by Angela Koulakoglou) | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2019 | 10 Years | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2019 | Plan B | David Zwirner Gallery, New York |
| 2018 | Total Eclipse of The Heart - Paintings about Women (curated by Dan Coombs) | Watson Farley & Williams, London |
| 2018 | Making and Breaking the Rules: Royal Academy 250 | Russel-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth |
| 2018 | Pleasure Drive (curated by GSL Projekt and CAVE 3000) | GSL Projekt, Berlin |
| 2017 | In Memoriam Francesca Lowe | Old Truman Brewery, London |
| 2017 | Part I: Street Semiotics (curated by Zavier Ellis) | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2016 | A Promise of Truth - the Contemporary Portrait | Galerie Robert Drees, Berlin |
| 2016 | Black Paintings | Galerie Heike Strelow, Frankfurt |
| 2016 | Semiotic Guerilla Warfare (Part 2) | Dean Clough Museum, Halifax |
| 2015 | Semiotic Guerilla Warfare (Part 1) | PAPER Gallery, Manchester |
| 2015 | Black Paintings | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2015 | Black Paintings : CHARLIE SMITH LONDON & Heike Strelow Gallery | Positions, Berlin |
| 2015 | REALITY: Modern and Contemporary British Painting | Walker Art Museum, Liverpool |
| 2015 | Die English Kommen! - New Painting from London (curated by Zavier Ellis) | Galerie Heike Strelow, Frankfurt |
| 2014 | Idolatry | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2014 | Saatchi’s New Sensations and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis, Simon Rumley & Rebecca | B1, Victoria House, London |
| 2014 | Cultus Deorum (curated by Zavier Ellis) | Saatchi Gallery, London |
| 2014 | REALITY: Modern and Contemporary British Painting (curated by Chris Stevens) | Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich |
| 2013 | Gallery Artists: Director’s Selection | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2013 | Saatchi Gallery & Channel 4’s New Sensations and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis, Simon Rumley & Rebecca Wilson) | B1, Victoria House, London |
| 2013 | Porträts | Galerie Rigassi, Bern |
| 2012 | The Id, the Ego and the Superego (curated by Zavier Ellis) | BRAUBACHfive, Frankfurt |
| 2012 | Saatchi Gallery & Channel 4’s New Sensations and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis, Simon Rumley & Rebecca Wilson) | B1, Victoria House, London |
| 2012 | The Serpent’s Tail | Witzenhausen Gallery, Amsterdam |
| 2012 | Polemically Small (curated by Zavier Ellis & Edward Lucie-Smith) | Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham |
| 2012 | The Id, the Ego and the Superego (curated by Zavier Ellis & Marcela Munteanu) | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2011 | Saatchi Gallery & Channel 4’s New Sensations and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis, Simon Rumley & Rebecca Wilson) | B1, Victoria House, London |
| 2011 | Charlie Sierra Lima | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2011 | Everyday (curated by Tony Benn) | University Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge |
| 2011 | Polemically Small (curated by Edward Lucie-Smith) | Klaipeda Culture Communication Centre, Klaipeda |
| 2011 | THE FUTURE CAN WAIT presents: Polemically Small (curated by Zavier Ellis, Edward Lucie-Smith & Simon Rumley) | Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles |
| 2011 | Polemically Small (curated by Edward Lucie-Smith) | Garboushian Gallery, Beverley Hills |
| 2010 | Pokerface | Koraalberg Contemporary Art Gallery, Antwerp |
| 2010 | THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley) | Shoreditch Town Hall, London |
| 2010 | Polemically Small (curated by Edward Lucie-Smith) | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2010 | Ray Lowry London Calling | Idea Generation, London |
| 2010 | New British Painting (curated by Zavier Ellis & Pilvi Kalhama) | Gallery Kalhama & Piippo, Helsinki |
| 2010 | Call to Arms | BRAUBACHfive, Frankfurt |
| 2009 | British Art Now (curated by Edward Lucie-Smith) | Werkstatt Galerie, Berlin |
| 2009 | THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley) | Old Truman Brewery, London |
| 2009 | New London School (curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley) | Galerie Schuster, Berlin |
| 2008 | THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley) | Old Truman Brewery, London |
| 2008 | The Smallest Art Fair in the World | Anna Kustera Gallery, New York |
| 2008 | A Stain upon the Silence (curated by Chris Shilling, Chris Page & Gaboy Gaynor) | St. Martins College of Art, London |
| 2008 | Anticipation (curated by Kay Saatchi & Catriona Warren) | Selfridges, London |
| 2008 | UK Best Graduates | White Box Gallery, New York |
| 2008 | The Past is History Part II (curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley) | Changing Role Gallery, Napoli |
| 2008 | The Past is History Part I (curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley) | Changing Role Gallery, Rome |
| 2008 | Icon (curated by Hugh Mendes) | Primo Alonso Gallery, London |
| 2008 | New London School (curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley) | Mark Moore Gallery, Los Angeles |
| 2007 | THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis & Simon Rumley) | Atlantis Gallery, London |
| 2006 | RA 5 | Lennon Weinberg, New York |
| 2006 | Royal Academy Show | Wisniez Castle, Krakow |
| 2005 | 50 Selected artists | Hollow Salon, London |
| 2004 | 12 Award Winners Show | Florence Trust, London |
| AWARDS & RESIDENCIES | ||
| 2007 | Chelsea Arts Club Travel Award | |
| 2005 | Sturdley Award | |
| 2004 | British Institute Award | |
| 2003–2004 | Florence Trust Studio Award | |
| BIBLIOGRAPHY | ||
| 2017 | RUN TO ME | Exhibition Catalogue |
| 2017 | The Book of Black, Faye Dowling (ISBN 978-1786270429) | Laurence King Publishing |
| 2014 | REALITY: Modern and Contemporary British Painting, Chris Stevens (ISBN 978-1786270429) | Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts |
| 2013 | 100 London Artists Vol. 1, Zavier Ellis & Edward Lucie-Smith | iArtBook |
| 2013 | Saatchi Gallery & Channel 4’s New Sensations and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT | Exhibition Catalogue |
| 2012 | Saatchi Gallery & Channel 4’s New Sensations and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT | Exhibition Catalogue |
| 2011 | Saatchi Gallery & Channel 4’s New Sensations and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT | Exhibition Catalogue |
| 2010 | New British Painting, Timo Valjakka | Artforum |
| 2009 | British Art Now, Travis Jeppesen | Artforum |
| 2009 | Sexuality in Art | Modern Edition.com |
| 2008 | THE FUTURE CAN WAIT | Exhibition Catalogue |
| 2008 (Jul) | Saatchi after Saatchi, Ginny Dougray | The Times Magazine |
| 2007 (Oct) | Oh You Pretty Things, Derwent May | The Times |
| 2007 (Aug) | Guide to the Fairs, Richard Clayton | Sunday Times |
| 2007 | 15 Young Masters, Freire Barnes | Bon International (No.12) |
| 2007 | Miser & Now (Issue 10), Q&A | Miser & Now |
| COLLECTIONS | ||
| Javier Baz, Denver | ||
| Carlos Fragoso, New York | ||
| Glen Luchford, New York | ||
| David Roberts, London | ||
| Sir Norman Rosenthal, London | ||
| Kay Saatchi, Los Angeles | ||
| Private collections in Belgium, Columbia, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom & United States | ||