Now on view at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture is the largest exhibition of the work of Timothy C. Ely ever assembled under one roof.
Since the early 1970’s Ely has been creating unique, one-of-a-kind mind-bending bookworks. On the form of his work Ely says “I became really aware that the atlas form would be the springboard — the point of departure — for everything I needed to deal with.” Using few, if any, words and drawing heavily from science, geometry, and religion one can spend a lifetime reading and comprehending each complex work.
Ely’s work is held in many of the world’s leading private and public Book Art collections including the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C.; and the Museum of Modern Art.
The centerpiece of the current exhibition is an enormous graphic work – up to 25 feet wide and 10 feet tall – that Ely will paint and draw directly onto the gallery’s south wall with a variety of projected forms, with pigments, beautiful metal armatures, wire, and thread. This work, in essence an animated, open book, will exist only for the life of the exhibition.
Dreamweaver, A profile of Ely at The Pacific Northwest Inlander
Ely’s website