Ellie Malin has always been interested in art, design and architecture. She graduated from a Fine Arts degree a decade ago with a focus on print making, and has been pursuing her practice full-time since then. Ellie divides her time between two studios – The Australian Print Workshop in Fitzroy, where she focuses on the print component of her works, and her own space in Richmond, where she paints.
Ellie’s latest show, Old City, New World, is the result of twelve months of creative experimentation. It’s a sentimental body of work, as Ellie created this series while pregnant with her first child. ‘This series is more about an internal reflection and definitely an introspective time of complete change into a new unknown world,’ she says.
The exhibition incorporates a collection of vibrant woodblock prints, exploring abstract images through colour, texture and form, drawing influence from Ellie’s interest in architecture. ‘I’ve always been interested in the idea of the city not only now, but also historically,’ she explains. ‘I’m interested in the relationship between nature and the man made.’
Each of Ellie’s works are made using traditional printmaking techniques. Printmakers typically create their works in edition sets, but each piece in this series is an original, Ellie explains. ‘The unique thing about my work is that each shape on the page is printed from an individual block,’ she says. ‘I build up the layers as I arrange the blocks into new compositions and create new relationships between the forms.’
Old City, New World by Ellie Malin
Until 12th May
Modern Times
311 Smith Street
Fitzroy