Jeff Elgin

Jeffrey Elgin is an accomplished artist who has exhibited his work extensively and maintains a fifty-year practice of daily drawing, Elgin taught at Skidmore College from 1968 – 1998. He was a beloved professor known for his combination of rigorous work ethic with a calm and supportive manner, and for fostering a passion for drawing among his students. Ever humble, Elgin continues to subject himself to the same high standards as his students, writing, ‘I am a student of painting and drawing. To be a student is a privilege. To be a student means remaining open, continually seeking, always questioning, embracing risk, and forever entering the unknown….In other words, your reach should exceed your grasp.’Elgin’s abstract paintings and drawings involve a deep and sustained engagement with the working process itself, and are informed by a range of issues and experiences. One frequent source of inspiration is nature. ‘Nature is the touchstone for my imagination. …My studio is filled with small natural objects; these often serve as instigators for my work. It is not the things themselves that interest me, but the sensations and transformations they excite.’ Elgin has devoted his full energy to drawing and painting since his retirement; many works in the exhibition are current, and all were completed within the past twenty years.  Elgin received his Bachelor of Science and his Master of Fine Arts degrees from the University of Cincinnati in Ohio.  His works are held in numerous public collections, including the Dayton Museum of Art and the Albany Institute of History and Art. He has participated in twenty-nine one-person exhibitions and over a hundred group exhibitions, including The Abstract Tradition, an invitational exhibit of eight painters at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute; and American Drawings II, a Smithsonian Museum traveling exhibition. Over the years he has been awarded two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Grants, and 25 awards in various juried exhibitions.