Stephen Ellis is a painter whose primary interest has been in abstraction as a language of allusion. He received a BFA from Cornell University followed by postgraduate study at The New York Studio School. His solo exhibitions in New York include those at Koury Wingate, Elizabeth Koury, André Emmerich and Von Lintel galleries in New York; and in Europe he has shown with Ascan Crone, Crone-Osarek in Hamburg, and Galerie Von Lintel & Nusser in Munich. He has also shown with Galerie Obadia in Paris, Marella Arte Contemporanea in Milan. Reviews of his work have appeared in Artforum, Art in America, ArtNews, and The New York Times, among other publications. Group exhibitions include: "Sets, Series, and Suites: Contemporary Prints" at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, "Invitational," at the American Academy of Arts & Letters, "Grays," at Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, "Works on Paper," Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, "Abstraction/Abstractions: Conditional Geometries," Musée d'Art Moderne de Saint Etienne, France, and "Nuevas Abstracciones," Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain. Ellis's work is included in public collections including The Brooklyn Museum, The Fogg Museum, The Ashmolean Museum and The National Fund for Contemporary Art, Paris. He has received the Purchase Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2004) and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (1991) and CAPS (now New York Foundation for the Arts, 1986). Ellis has written extensively on contemporary art for European and American publications including Parkett, Tema Celeste, and Art in America. He has been an Associate and Contributing Editor of Art in America and edited for Artforum and Parkett Magazine (Switzerland).

Ellis currently teaches Color in the Foundation Program, and Painting at The Cooper Union School of Art. He has also taught painting at Harvard University, The California Institute of Art, The School of Visual Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, New York University and Bard College.