News

Spring 2026

On Painting and the Nature of Work

Stay tuned for the Spring 2026 release of my book, On Painting and the Nature of Work, edited and published by N+Co. and designed by Caleb Cain Marcus of Luminosity Lab. Foreword by Bett Williams, Afterword by Terry Castle. Hard cover, 288 pages, with full color plates. Printed by Robstolk, Amsterdam.

I keep joking that I am not good at elevator pitches—guess I’d better start working on that! In the meantime my dear friend, writer Sarah Schulman, was kind enough to write a nice blurb:

“This is a gripping and alive integration of influences, magical transmissions, insights into composition and vision that open doors for the reader to help us see our own world with more color and clarity. Amy Ellingson’s zest for life frees her to be self-aware about her aesthetics and her emotions with an infectious sincerity and commitment to understand. In the tradition of Anne Truitt’s Prospect, this could easily become a classic for painters and art lovers alike.”

— Sarah Schulman

Women in Abstraction, Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, January 15 - March 5, 2026

I’m thrilled to have my work included in this exhibition, amongst works by Bridget Riley, Cecily Brown, Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, Diana Al-Hadid, Suzanne McClelland, Anna Kunz, Val Britton, and Lucy Williams.

October 2025

Code Garden now on view in Somerville, MA

I am very happy to share Code Garden, a recent commission for a new building in Somerville, MA. While I have completed some very large scale public art projects, at 20 x 40 feet, Code Garden is the largest work I have ever made in my studio. In Code Garden is an intricate field of layered forms, sequences, and symmetries. The composition suggests a networked environment, where repetition and variation generate complexity over time. While fully abstract, the work gestures toward systems of natural and artificial organization, evoking structures that are simultaneously ordered and dynamic. I am thrilled to have made this piece for this beautiful new building. The project challenged me in every way, and presented some tricky logistical issues; stay tuned for a my forthcoming blog post, in which I will share the details of painting, packing, shipping, and installing this piece. To see more images, click here.

October 2025

Major Commission for a NYC collection; Notation Cycle I - X

Notation Cycle: I - X is a suite of ten paintings that explores the intersection of human agency, natural systems, and iterative gesture. Each painting is a meditation of thought, mark, and energy expressed through layered, non-linguistic notations that suggest both precision and fluidity. Notation Cycle I - X comprises complex fields that echo the recursive patterns found in nature and cognition.

The series embraces repetition as a structure for transformation, in which variations suggest an evolving system. Drawing on traditions of abstraction and gestural writing, the Notation Cycle suite reflects a disciplined engagement with dynamic systems, a search for equilibrium within motion, and a quiet assertion of meaning through process. To see all ten paintings, click here.

September 2025

Fenestra Molendini now on view at The Mill, Westport, NY

I’m pleased and excited to announce the installation of Fenestra Molendini, my recent stained glass window project, at The Mill in Westport, NY.

The Mill is an 11,000 square foot former grain mill that was originally constructed in 1952 as the Champlain Valley Seed Cooperative. In 2021 the building was purchased by Catherine Ross Haskins and Taylor Haskins with the intent of restoring it into an extraordinary new home for innovative cultural experiences. The building houses a curated art exhibition program of world class contemporary art, a speakeasy (The Knock) and a performance space. Read more about The Mill here.

Fenestra Molendini is a site-specific, 8 x 8 foot, stained glass window for an exhibition and performance space in a restored flour mill. Installed in the cathedral-like space where grain had previously been sifted and sorted, the multi-layered abstraction pays homage to the building’s former function as a flour mill and its physical orientation on the land. The imagery references 19th century American landscape painting, the digital language of early 1980s video games, and 19th century Japanese woodblock printing. Fabricated by Franz Mayer of Munich. To read more about this project, see my recent blog post.

September 23, 2025

A Day in the Sun now on view at San Diego International Airport’s New T1

I’m thrilled to announce that my commission for San Diego International Airport's New Terminal 1 is on view. It’s an incredible honor to be a part of this gorgeous new building.

A Day in the Sun consists of smalti glass mosaics installed on 6 structural columns and a related floor design incorporated into the terrazzo matrix. The column designs refer to San Diego’s Ocean Beach Pier and the phenomenon of the reflecting color and light of San Diego’s celebrated climate and atmosphere. Color gradations within each column design (aligned on an east-west axis, and organized in palettes referencing directional orientation and time of day) move the eyes up and down and left and right, encouraging visual exploration, orientation within the overall space, and way-finding. Fabricated by Mosaika Art & Design and Corradini Corp.

To learn more about the five year process of creating this project, see my recent blog post.

September 2025

Commission for University of Michigan’s new D. Dan and Betty Kahn Health Care Pavilion

*Variation (blue, green, white),* 2025
Oil and encaustic on two panels, 72 x 84 inches

I am pleased to announce the installation of Variation (blue, green, white) in the new D. Dan and Betty Kahn Health Care Pavilion at Michigan Medicine/University of Michigan. I am always honored to have my work installed in health care settings. Like anyone who has sat and worried at the bedside of a loved one in hospital, I know how important and uplifting works of art can be for patients, family members, and health care workers.

September 2025

*Loop: Fragment No. 4,* 2023, oil and encaustic on panel

Root Division Annual Auction

Thursday, October 23, 2025

I’m very pleased to continue to support the San Francisco arts non-profit, Root Division.

Collect art, support arts education, and be inspired by artists at Root Division’s largest annual fundraising event!

Proceeds directly benefit local artists, free art classes for Bay Area youth, and the continued success of Root Division’s unique model for keeping artists working at the heart of San Francisco.

November 2024

Public Art Project for San Diego International Airport

After four years, A Day in the Sun, my public art project for San Diego International Airport’s new Terminal 1 is being installed. My project consists of smalti glass mosaics which will be installed on six structural columns, and a terrazzo floor design, which includes hand-cast smalti glass in the terrazzo matrix. I recently spent a week in beautiful San Diego, working with the terrific team at Corradini Corp. I had a great time working with the guys, who literally lay every inch of terrazzo by hand. The column mosaics have been fabricated by Mosaika Art & Design, and will be installed in January 2025. The new Terminal 1 opens in September 2025.

March 2024

Group Exhibition: Material Instinct at 120710, Berkeley, CA

March 16 - April 13

I’m so happy to have been invited, along with lots of good friends and colleagues, to be a part of this exhibition, curated by Rebecca Kaufman and Makiko Harris. The opening reception is March 16, 4 -8 PM. For more information, click here.

February 2024

Stained Glass Window Commission for The Mill, Westport, NY

Working with the artisans at Franz Mayer of Munich.

I’m thrilled to be working on a commission for a stained glass window for The Mill in Westport, NY. The Mill is an old flour mill which is currently being transformed into a performing arts and exhibition space. My project, Fenestra Molendini, will be sited above the performance stage. I’m absolutely thrilled to be working with Franz Mayer of Munich, one of the world’s leading fabricators of transitional stained glass. This project is due to be installed this summer. Stay tuned for more information.

July 2023

Technosignatures Catalogue Release

I’m thrilled to announce the catalogue for Technosignatures, my solo exhibition at Robischon Gallery. The full color catalogue is 106 pages and includes exhibition notes and six ChatGPT essays. Each has a unique custom dish jacket. I will reserve a few copies and will make them available for sale here. Stay tuned!

May 2023

Technosignatures, Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO

I’m very pleased to announce my exhibition, Technosignatures, opening at Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO on May 25, 2023, with a reception from 6-8 PM. The exhibition runs through September 30, 2023.

From the exhibition notes:

Technosignature (n.) any measurable property or effect that provides scientific
evidence of past or present technology

In her fourth Robischon Gallery solo exhibition, entitled Technosignatures, New Mexico artist Amy Ellingson offers a diverse constellation of works, including paintings, robotic drawings, tapestry, and glazed porcelain sculpture. Ellingson has used digital imagery as the basis for her paintings for over three decades. She is interested in the vast, incalculable effects of the rise of digital technology on both artistic production and on the experience of looking at art. At the same time, she is invested in the practice of painting as a deeply humanistic activity. Her work is a conflation of traditional methodologies and new technologies, of hand-made and digitally produced, of strict protocol and strategic work-arounds, of natural and artificial, and of fast and slow. Her work addresses this moment in time, in which we, as a species, are betwixt and between the analog past and a digitally immersive future. read more

May 2023

Tapestry Project with Magnolia Editions

I’m thrilled to announce my second collaboration with Magnolia Editions. We created two large-scale tapestries, Grand Loop Variation No. 1 and Grand Loop Variation No. 2. This project is the fruition of my interest in jacquard weaving; the Jacquard machine, patented in 1804, simplified the weaving process by using punch cards to determine designs and patterns in the weaving process. This early technology is considered an important step in the history of computing. Magnolia Editions’ notable innovation within this time-honored tradition involves the computerization of custom palettes. The tapestries are woven at a small, family-owned mill in Belgium. The Grand Loop Variation tapestries are closely related to the paintings in the Loop suite, but are unique designs created specifically for the weaving process. It’s a dream come true to work with the team at Magnolia again, with their cutting edge digital expertise, to create works that have such deep, historical associations. Tapestries have distinct tactile and optical qualities, as they are woven in low-relief. Colors literally recede and advance in physical space. And, of course, tapestries represent centuries of skill and craft in terms of their presence as art objects. I appreciate the history of the medium, not least because of its relationship to early computing devices.

Both tapestries are 96 x 80 inches. They are in editions of 6 + proofs.

They will debut in my exhibition, Technosignatures, which opens May 25, 2023 at Robischon Gallery in Denver.