Our 2015 Gallery Open House features enamel artist Helen Elliott, and showcases the work of interdisciplinary artist, William Rhodes.
Helen Elliott's early work focused on the experimental usage of porcelain enamel on steel. Her unique approach used this industrial material to painterly effect, challenging not only the process for which the material was used but also the traditional application of enamels. Her work has been described as “boundary breaking” in its application and imagery, earning Helen a 1998 Ohio Arts Council Individual Fellowship Grant. Helen is an MFA graduate of Kent State University in Ohio. She has exhibited widely in the USA and abroad including the UK, Canada, and Jamaica. Her work is in many private collections, as well as the permanent collection of the Enamel Arts Foundation.
The creative works of William Rhodes are in the collections of various galleries and museums, and featured in several major publications. A woodworker by trade, an artist by choice, he blends fine craft, sculpture and design with meaning and function. His art has been strongly influenced by travel - particularly to Africa, Asia, and Central and South America - allowing for the exploration of hidden knowledge, iconographic imagery and form; and variation in meaning depending on the cultural context.
He began his creative journey at the Baltimore School for the Arts, and holds a B.A. in Furniture Building and Design from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and a MFA from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. Rhodes is the co-founder of a Black art collective in San Francisco. The 3.9 Art Collective was formed in 2011 in response to the declining Black population in San Francisco.