Mary Ellen Bartley: Chromatic Fiction

Mary Ellen Bartley is a photographer known for her quiet exploration of the printed book’s potential for abstraction. Series like Reading in Color, Paperbacks, and Reading November celebrate the tenacity of an object that, rather than falling into obsolescence as expected, has somehow become more universally beloved in the public imagination since the digital age first threatened its extinction. In addition to her sculptural treatment of anonymous volumes, many of them nostalgically recalling the pulp paperbacks of our childhoods, Bartley has also turned her camera on notable libraries or collections. In 2015, she was an Artist in Residence at the Watermill Center, an artist lab created by experimental theater director and artist Robert Wilson; Bartley created a series of photographs and an installation drawing from Wilson’s heavily-notated stacks. Bartley was born in New York, NY and received her BFA from Purchase College, SUNY. She lives and works in Sag Harbor, NY. Her work has been exhibited in numerous institutions including The Queens Museum, NY; The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Houston Center for Photography, TX; The Drawing Room, East Hampton, NY; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY; The Watermill Center, NY; and National Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, Guatemala City. Bartley has taken part in numerous residencies, including Casa Morandi, Bologna, Italy; The Queens Museum, NY; Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY; Penumbra Foundation, New York, NY; and Watermill Center, NY. This is her first exhibition with Jackson Fine Art.