Ellen Lesperance

Media: Painting and mixed media

Currently: Assistant professor of BFA and MFA programs, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland

Background: Lesperance received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Washington and a Master of Fine Arts from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Before coming to Oregon, she taught at the Maine College of Art, chairing its Painting Department for several years. She served as an associate editor at Butterick and SOHO Publishing in New York for two years. She has soloed and been included in group exhibitions for the past 15 years in Portland, New York, Boston, Seattle, London, Miami, Los Angeles, Sante Fe and Kansas City. Her works are held in public collections, including those of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Museum of Art and Design and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Lesperance was selected as a recipient of the Betty Bowen Award. In 2013, Lesperance was included in Phaidon's  biennial survey on contemporary drawing, an acknowledgment of her work on an international scale.