Casey Jane Ellison

Born 1988 in Los Angeles, CA
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

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Education

BFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2009

About The Artist

A one-woman cult of personality, the LA/New York-based artist/satirist Casey Jane Ellison has achieved notoriety as a deadpan guide to media consumption, from reality TV to art. Ellison debuted in 2013 as a vacuous fashion tipster in her reality TV webseries “What the F*shion?” for VFiles, and a misanthropic host of a gender-binary-fixated-all-female talk show “Touching the Art,” now on Ovation. Always in dark lipstick and a goth-industrial fashion sense, Ellison undermines “sex sells” with selfhood, and PR with eyerolls– an art school cynic drolly cramming herself into a square hole.

Ellison founded the roaming animation and video exhibition Aboveground Animation in 2008, a platform for off-kilter experimentation by artists like Barry Doupé and Cody Critcheloe. She began experimenting with stand-up comedy after graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago arts with a degree in film, video, and animation in 2009. In 2012, Aboveground Animation had an online exhibition at the New Museum, and Ellison’s animation “It’s So Important to Seem Wonderful”– a CGI animation of herself doing standup– appeared on MoCA TV. As a writer, she has contributed to publications and outlets such as Vice Magazine, Gawker, Dazed and GQ.

Ellison’s practices were shown in tandem at the 2015 New Museum Triennial, where she exhibited “It’s So Important to Seem Wonderful,” as well as held live tapings of “Touching the Art.” Panelists like Kembra Pfahler, K8 Hardy, Lauren Cornell, and Juliana Huxtable were interrogated on subjects ranging from career tips, terrorism, and criticism.

Ellison works outside the traditional gallery system, finding its role as a luxury product seller problematic. Fans can, however, purchase screenprinted T-shirts with Casey’s portrait at her web store, which comes with a video stylized like a promo for an Olsen Twins lookbook.

Work

Exhibitions

  • Anything for a Laugh: Humor in Contemporary Art

    The works for this exhibition range from works that address serious concerns with humorous affect to others whose intent is more purely comedic. Together, they provide an intriguing snapshot of the manner in which comic strategies manifest themselves in contemporary art.

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