Ethan Cornell is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. He received his education at the High School of Art and Design, NYC and the Parsons School of Design. Since graduation he has studied at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice and received a fellowship from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. He works professionally as an artist, graphic artist, illustrator, and teacher.

Drawing is the core of his artistic practice, the base of his work in painting, sculpture, video, graphic and digital arts. The central aspects of his work are fictional narrative and working from life: one an act of invention, the other observation of the real.

Much of his recent work is concerned with both the epistemology and constitution of things. In a time of fake news, his art investigates the mediated nature of truth and the questions of “how do we know things.” His lifetime interest in popular science, history, and mythology has provided fertile ground for exploring the malleability of memory and the fuzziness of our shared stories and facts.

In the last decade he has exhibited his work primarily in New York and California, including shows at Saddleback College, Gaia Gallery, Kentler International Drawing Space and the Art Fair on Governors Island.

Recent Exhibitions

EFA Project Space, New York, May 2020 <posptponed>

Cluster Gallery, Small Works Exhibition, New York, September 2019

RC Project Space, 2 Person show with Lisa Ingram, New York, April 2019

City Lore Gallery - Eros and Spirituality, Group Show, New York, 2018

Red Hook Open Studios, New York, 2018
Board member, organization team and exhibitor.

Le Centre Arts et Cultures of Cotonou - Way of Water, Cotonou, Benin; 2018
An ongoing collaborative, performance and video project.

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum - Way of Water, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 2017

4 Heads - Governors Island Art Fair, Juried Exhibition, New York, 2017

Planned Parenthood - Jams For Clams, New York, 2017

Group show and print sale benefiting Planned Parenthood. Organization team member and exhibitor.

Arts In Bushwick, Open studio and group show, New York, 2017

Red Hook Open Studios, New York, 2016
Organization team and exhibitor.

Sunny’s, Solo Show, New York, 2016

Bushwick Open Studios, New York, 2016

Tin Cup - Group Show, Gallery Gaia. New York, 2015

Hot Wood Arts Open Studios, New York, 2015

Bushwick Open Studios, New York, 2015

Group Show, 233 Pop-Up, New York, 2015

Solo Show, Gallery Gaia, New York, 2014

Group Show, Gallery Gaia, New York, 2013

Solo Show, Gallery Gaia, New York, 2013

Visiting Artist and Two-Person Show, Saddleback College, California, 2013

Group Show, Lost Coast Culture Machine, California, 2011

Residencies

Fish Factory Creative Centre, Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland, July 2021

Governor’s Island Artist Residency (Portal / 4 Heads), July-Nov. 2021

Playa Arts and Science Residency, Summer Lake, Oregon, Summer-Fall 2019

Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Nebraska City, December 2018

Hot Wood Arts, New York, 2015 to present

Education

Venice Biennale, Venice Italy, Work-study, 1993

Scuola Internazionale di Grafica, Venice Italy, Summer Program, 1992

Guggenheim Studentship, Venice, 1991

BFA-Illustration, Parsons School of Design, 1991

High School of Art and Design, 1986