Elsie Kagan is a New York City-based painter, originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work draws together divergent languages into conversation with a material-based approach to abstraction, creating visually dense and exuberant paintings. Kagan recently mounted solo exhibitions at eeeee in Mexico City, Sweet Lorraine Gallery, Brooklyn NY, Mandell Center in Hartford, CT, and Rivington Design House Gallery, New York, NY, and as well as a two-person show at the Soapbox Gallery, New York, NY. Selected group exhibitions and curatorial projects include RushArts, Ground Floor Gallery, 440 Gallery, and Arts@Renaissance, all in New York City; Crane Arts, Philadelphia, PA; and Zilkah Gallery at Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT. Kagan’s work has been featured in publications such as the Washington Post, Flavorpill, the Brooklyn Record, Studio Visit Magazine, and Looking at Painting. Residencies include R.A.R.O Madrid, Vermont Studio Center, Residency Unlimited, and Chautauqua. The recipient of several awards and grants, Kagan most recently received a fellowship and grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and from the Sustainable Arts Foundation. Kagan holds an MFA from the Tyler School of Art and a BA from Wesleyan University.
Identifying a real lack in accessibility and opportunity for artists who are raising children, Kagan founded and launched Interlude Artist Residency in 2019. A non-profit residency program in Upstate New York, Interlude is unique in serving the needs of artist parents. Kagan is Executive Director for the program, which is serving about 25 artists per year.