ArtistEllen Altfest

Ellen Altfest is a representational painter who lives and works in New York. Altfest is represented by Bellwether and has exhibited in numerous group shows, including Dynasty at Gallery MC, USA Today, curated by Charles Saatchi, at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and the Drawing Show, curated by Ellen Gallager, at the Boston Center for the Arts. Altfest received an MFA from Yale University. She attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2002) and was awarded a studio at the Marie Walsh Sharpe art Foundation 2004-5. In 2004 she attended the Dorland Mountain Art Center in the foothills of Temecula, CA.

"The artist's laborious, openly time-consuming, directly from life imaging method pamper the eyes of those who look at the finished pieces, layer upon layer of detail, irregularity and perspective ending in an image that at first seems entirely fragmented but within seconds is as palpably life-like as the original which it mimics. ... Durer comes to mind, as does Chuck Close." Lupe Nunez-Fernandez, Saatchi Online.