Stella Ebner American, b. 1975

Stella Ebner explores the inherent qualities of printmaking to examine how imagery in our society is created and conveyed within the context of a deep appreciation for the moments that are left outside the picture frame - the overlooked, the forgotten. She primarily employs the mediums of screen print, water-based woodblock, and watercolor monoprint to realize her work.

In her screen prints, Ebner is interested in pushing the boundaries of the medium by overlapping multiple transparent pigments that build to form the whole.  The distinctive overlay of color and imagery that printmaking allows, gives rise to new and unexpected forms and relationships, as in The Thin Model Trick Parts 1 and 2, where she quite literally confines the protagonist and splits the frame in two.  In Making Starring Night, Ebner disrupts the traditional relationship of subject and object of the male gaze by objectifying the male figure, transforming Starry Night from painting to print, and deconstructing it into pieces of a puzzle.

In the more recent woodblock and watercolor monoprints,  Ebner explores the overlapping boundaries and relationships between the human and the animal within contemporary American life. As Ebner explains, The inspiration for these prints is embodied in both the Japanese woodblock bird-and-flower prints and surimono prints, specifically the surimono prints that depict still life imagery.  These prints explored the complex lives of animals, birds and insects and their relationship with the natural world.  I am interested in pulling such imagery into the contemporary world, where the beauty of animals and nature are viewed through the prism of the American every day.