MONROVIA

East Hampton artist, Ellen Frank

will be speaking with Bonnie Grice

Monday morning at 9:00 am on WLIU radio (88.3)

about her up-coming exhibit,

CITIES OF PEACE opening at

CATHEDRAL OF SAINT JOHN THEDIVINE

JANUARY 7 – FEBRUARY 16, 2009

OPENING RECEPTION, JAN. 7, 6 – 9PM

CITIES OF PEACE is a series of nine monumental, 6 x 8 foot gold-illuminated paintings honoring cities traumatized by major conflict: BAGHDAD, BEIJING, HIROSHIMA, JERUSALEM, KABUL, LHASA, MONROVIA, NEW YORK, SARAJEVO.
The commemorative body of work was conceived by American artist Ellen Frank
and produced at her Illumination Atelier, with trained interns and scholars from China, Colombia, Estonia, Canada and elsewhere. Honoring cities either in the midst of crisis or in different stages of cultural restoration, the suite features Baghdad, Beijing, Hiroshima, Jerusalem, Kabul, Lhasa, Monrovia, New York and Sarajevo.
“The U.S. faces more than the enormous effort to repair our diplomatic ties; we need to promote healing and unity across borders,” says artist Ellen Frank. “This is my way of helping: I strongly believe that when people are in the presence of beautiful things—removed from the world of despair, fear, worry—we become hopeful, closer and beautifully at peace.”

CITES OF PEACE marries word and image in the great tradition of illuminated art, evoking
artistic traditions as diverse as illuminated manuscripts, religious icons, tapestries, embroidery, architectural mosaics, woodcarvings, and metalwork. Crimson leaf, the color of blood, is placed in each painting to honor the dead. While serving as memorials, the paintings are also intended as border crossings that enable visions of greater compassion and heightened consciousness among peoples.

CITIES OF PEACE will be narrated in a free cell phone tour by actor Fred Melamed, who is
starring in the next Coen brothers’ film, A Serious Man. The Cathedral is located at 112th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, one block east of Broadway. Hours are Monday - Saturday, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday 7 a.m. - 7 p.m. Admission is free.

Ellen Frank studied art history and connoisseurship at Yale University and holds an
interdisciplinary doctorate in English literature and the visual arts from Stanford University. She is a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, a Ford Foundation fellowship, and grants from the
National Endowment for the Arts, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Frank founded the nonprofit Ellen Frank Illumination Arts Foundation, Inc., in East Hampton, New York.

watch Ellen Frank video