FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY
Ellis's photographs look like nineteenth-century etchings or the ink-brush paintings of an ancient Zen master.
—Nathaniel Reade
New England Home
Libby Ellis is a fine art photographer exploring the confluence of Spiritual Ecology, Flora-Human Relations, and Empathy.
Her contemplative black-and-white photographic portraits of garden-grown flora are exhibited internationally in galleries and museums, including Saatchi Gallery London, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Griffin Museum of Photography, San Francisco Film Foundation, and Colorado Photographic Arts Center.
The Royal Horticultural Society has honored Ellis’s flora portraits with multiple awards. Her work is held in private and public collections, including the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Divinity School.
Libby Ellis is alive on Martha’s Vineyard—the ancestral homeland of the Wampanoag people and nation, who call the island Noepe, “the land between the waters.”
Self-portrait in the studio.
Flowers off-camera.
RECENT SELECT EXHIBITIONS
SOLO
2025 Minificence The Carnegie Trust
2024 BeFlowered The Carnegie Trust
2023 Miraculum Old Sculpin Gallery
2022 Prayer Flower Old Sculpin Gallery
2021 Cosmosis Schule Chapel Gallery at Featherstone Center for the Arts
2020 Joyful Participation in A World of Sorrows The Carnegie Trust Museum
GROUP
2026 Saatchi Gallery London {June 19 - August 2}
2025 Cape Cod Museum of Art | Provincetown Art Association & Museum
2024 Marblehead Arts Gallery | Foto Biennale Barcelona | Saatchi Gallery London
2023 Colorado Photographic Arts Center | Cape Cod Museum of Art | Saatchi Gallery London
2022 Saatchi Gallery London | Marblehead Arts Gallery | Cape Cod Museum of Art | Griffin Museum of Photography | A Gallery at Featherstone Center for the Arts
2021 Cape Cod Museum of Art | Griffin Museum of Photography
2020 Cape Cod Museum of Art | Winter Street Gallery
COLLECTIONS
Harvard Divinity School
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Martha's Vineyard Hospital
AWARDS & GRANTS
Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Grant
Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant
Royal Horticultural Society UK (three-time medal recipient)
Pre-select nominee, SECA, SFMOMA
Photography Fellow, San Francisco Academy of Art
Eisner Award in Photography, University of California Berkeley
RESIDENCIES & TEACHING EXPERIENCE
R E S I D E N C I E S
Creative Growth, Oakland, CA
Alhambra Library, Alhambra, CA
T E A C H I N G E X P E R I E N C E
UC Berkeley Extension, Berkeley, CA
Art Center at Night, Pasadena, CA
CSSSA at CalArts, Valencia, CA
CSSSA at Mills College, Oakland, CA
CSSSA at CSU Fresno, Fresno, CA
Public & Private schools, Los Angeles, CA
EDUCATION
Oakland High School
Oakland, CA
Bachelor of Arts
University of California at Berkeley
Scripps College (transfer to UCB)
Graduate studies
MA & Ph.D. track (withdrew)
University of California at Berkeley
Radcliffe College
Master of Art (special status study)
Mills College
Master of Arts (withdrew)
San Francisco State University
(special status study @ CCA)