Ellen Sylvarnes has exhibited in North America and Europe. Her work has been featured in the Sound Space Symposium at the South Hill Art Center in England in 2008. In June of 2009 her drawings will be included in an international exhibition titled Personally Political – Contemporary Sensation at Kunsthaus Tacheles, in Berlin Germany. In January of 2009 her work was presented in a group show and artist talk in Fredericton, Canada at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design.  A solo exhibition of her most recent work titled “everything I found and endured” will be presented at the Emerson Gallery in Berlin Germany in October of 2009.  She has been the recipient of several New York Council for the Arts Grants in 2008 and 2009.  She holds a degree in Human Ecology from The College of the Atlantic and received her formal art training at The Art Students League of New York. She studied and traveled on a solo journey through Europe at the early age of 19 exploring ancient megalithic sites and religious monuments.

Born Ellen Christine Sullivan on February 10, 1961 in New York City. She established her first studio on Union Square in 1984. In 1993 she was selected by the acclaimed artist John Torreano to be included in an exhibition at Artist Space, the well-known non-profit space in New York. At that time she and her husband the artist Richard Sylvarnes formed several art circles and clubs with fellow artist in downtown New York. Together they curated the widely attended guerrilla exhibition Aiming at the landmark Mathew Brady building on Lower Broadway. In 1994 the first showing of the Chemistry Series at the Islip Art Museum was highly praised in the New York Times, by writer Phyllis Braff. Since then she has expanded upon this work and has documented several installations and rituals in public spaces throughout New York City.

Ellen is the mother of Sonje Sylvarnes.  She is a citizen of the US and Ireland and currently has a studio in Brooklyn, New York.