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“Trubert’s work blends materials such as tree limbs, shells and plants, with text evoking physiological and psychological unravellings, and the pursuit of balance….Her nature-based sculptural materials are at once evidence of her literal collecting, seeking, and searching, and a metaphor for the complexity and solace of the cycle of life.” - Marcella Hackbardt A Celebration of 50 Years of Women Artists at Kenyon College Edited by Marcella Hackbardt and Claudia Esslinger, 2019 |
Elie Porter Trubert is a New Jersey artist who works across a variety of media including sculpture, installation, audio, and photography. She is driven by a deep connection to nature, concern for the environment, and an interest in non-traditional art spaces. She has developed an ongoing contemplative walking practice that involves the creation of ephemeral, site specific sculptural works assembled from gathered natural materials. These pieces allude to impermanence, interconnectedness, and attunement.
She creates “circle meditations” during her walks and leaves them for human and more-than-human others to find. Ultimately they will be washed or blown away, or changed by natural processes. She documents her ephemeral pieces using photography and video and has been exploring the role of those media in the work.
In recognition of her positionality, Elie began a “re-gifting” practice of returning what she had previously taken in an attempt to undo the damage and potential violence of those actions. Going back in time in a sense, she creates work using materials sourced over many years. The resulting pieces are offered back in apology and in an expression of gratitude.
Going forward, in terms of using materials sourced from nature in her work, Elie is developing and internalizing a process and approach for a walking-with practice with the goal of fostering a relationship with the more-than-human that is healing, consensual, and reciprocal.
A long-time nonprofit arts leader, Elie led The Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster, New Jersey until last year. Her work has been exhibited widely, most recently at Whittemore - Community, Culture and Conservation in Oldwick, NJ, Sala752 in Zaczernie, Poland and ASC Gallery in London, England. She has a BA Studio Art from Kenyon College and is an MFA candidate at the University of New Mexico.
Exhibitions
Art Alliance of Monmouth County, Red Bank, NJ: window installations
May 2023
Whittemore - Community, Culture & Conservation, Oldwick, NJ: Walking-With, a site-specific installation and guided walks along the mindfulness meditation circuit
May 2023
M Galleries, Washington, NJ: The Future is Plastic - a group exhibitions of Co11ective members
October 2022
Whittemore - Community, Culture & Conservation, Oldwick, NJ: Water, a site-specific, ephemeral installation
October 2022 onward
ASC Gallery, London:
September 2022
Sala752, Zaczernie, Poland: Day on Earth
August 2022
Rotunda Gallery, Metuchen, NJ: Are We Fiddling While the World Burns? Activism, the environment and the artist's responsibility
Curator: Joseph Castronova
March-June 2022
M Galleries, Washington, NJ: Twenty 20 UK/US
April 2022: M Galleries, Washington, NJ
Whittemore - Community, Culture & Conservation, Oldwick, NJ
Spring, a site-specific, ephemeral exhibition
May 2022 onward
M Galleries Fellowship, Bernardsville, NJ: Centered
An exhibition of cyanotypes
March 2022
Sedona Arts Center, Sedona, Arizona: Souls of Forgotten Objects
Juror: Geoffrey Gorman
December 1-23, 2021
Hemlock Art Space & Gallery, Easton, Pennsylvania: Exposé
Virtual Exhibition
November 13, 2021 - January 3, 2022
Banana Factory, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: 11th Annual InVision Juried Exhibition
Juror: Jason Chen
November 2021-January 2022
M Galleries Pohatcong Native Arboretum, Washington, New Jersey: “Wishful” solo exhibition of wands, talismans and mandalas
September 2021
Hamilton Street Gallery, Bound Brook, New Jersey: Drawing from Life
February-April, 2021
Stay Home Gallery, Paris, Tennessee: Hope - Revolution
Juror: Lauren Harris
October 2020 - January 2021
Northwest Area Arts Council, Crystal, Illinois: Heaven and Hell
Jurors: Joe & Kathleen Isacson
August 2020
M Galleries, Washington, New Jersey: The Great Beyond Solo Exhibition
July 2020
Drawing Rooms, Jersey City, New Jersey: Prayers for the Pandemic
Curator: Anne Trauben
May 20-ongoing
Art Fair 14C, Jersey City, New Jersey: Co11ective - Room 814
February 21-23, 2020
Jurors: Peter Gynd, Lesley Heller Gallery, Kristina Huntington, KH Fine Art Projects |Lincoln Center Editions, and Elizabeth Sadoff, Elizabeth Sadoff Art Advisory
Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, New Jersey: 41st Annual Juried Exhibition
January 18 - March 15, 2020
Recipient: Juror's Award
Juror: Grace Graupe-Pillard
Brick + Mortar, Easton, Pennsylvania: "A Collection of Lines"
August 2019
Cerulean Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 7th Annual Juried Exhibition
June-July 2019
Juror: Jane Irish
Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, New York: Small Works 2019 (online)
June-December 2019
Studio Montclair, Montclair, New Jersey: Viewpoints 2019 Annual Juried Exhibition
May 2019
Juror: Jeanne Brasile, Seton Hall University
Juror's Statement
Art Alliance of Monmouth County, Red Bank, New Jersey: 32nd Annual Juried Exhibition
April 2019
Juror: Jocelyn Miller, PS1
Hamilton Street Gallery, Bound Brook, New Jersey: "Arborescence"
March 2019
Studio Montclair, Montclair, New Jersey: "Divergent Evolution"
March 2019
Juror: Emma Wilcox, Artistic Director, Gallery Aferro, Newark
M Galleries, Washington, New Jersey: "Nature/Nurture: A Family of Artists"
November 2018
Awards
Chateau Orqueveaux, France, 2023 artist residency
Trillium Arts, Mars Hill, North Carolina, 2021 artist residency
Trillium Arts, Mars Hill, North Carolina, 2021 artist residency
Publicatons
Prayers for the Pandemic: 2020
50 Years of Women Artists at Kenyon College: 2019
50 Years of Women Artists at Kenyon College: 2019
