| Zavier Ellis Two years after graduating from Manchester University with a BA (Hons) in History of Modern Art in 1996, Zavier Ellis opened his first gallery in London at the age of 24. Also an artist with a Masters in Fine Art, Ellis has work placed in several renowned international collections including Peter Nobel (Zurich), Anne Lewis (Sydney, New York) and Helmut Schuster (Frankfurt, Berlin). Ellis launched his most recent project, CHARLIE SMITH london, in 2006 as a curatorial dealership specializing in young, contemporary artists, and opened a gallery space in Old Street in October 2009. Ellis’s approach is collaborative and curatorial with an emphasis on work that challenges, seduces, confronts and consoles. Beauty, death, horror, sexuality, the historical and mythological are core interests, with the overall aim of discovering and promoting vital artists, and introducing them to local and international markets, creating a global synergy for like minded and progressive artists, collectors, galleries and curators. Throughout his career Ellis has become recognised for his ability to identify rising talent at an early stage. Artists that Ellis has exhibited having spotted them directly from art college include Jennifer Allen, David Blandy, Oliver Clegg, Simon Cunningham, Tessa Farmer, Sam Jackson, Monica Ursina Jäger, Annie Kevans, Peter Jacob Maltz, Sarah McGinity, Margaret O’Brien and Douglas White, all of whom have gone onto achieve great success with galleries and collectors and many have begun to work with international museums. Ellis therefore has a broad and extensive experience of the contemporary art scene as curator, dealer, artist, collector and events organizer. He has recently also begun his first novel, a fictional work situated in the London artworld and after the success of The Future Can Wait, Zavier has co-curated shows at Mark Moore Gallery (New London School) in Los Angeles, Changing Role Gallery (The Past Is History) in Rome and Naples, and Galerie Schuster (New London School) in Berlin. Zavier is also a committee member for the XV Vauxhall Style Council Collective. |