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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251009
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SUMMARY:Brantley Ellzey: Reflection + Ritual + Refuge
DESCRIPTION:On view through January 25\, 2026Crosstown Arts GalleriesFree and open to the public\nTues-Friday from 11-8pm and Saturday and Sunday from noon-6pm \nIn Reflection + Ritual + Refuge\, artist Brantley Ellzey weaves a world where repetition becomes remembrance\, where reflection fractures into beauty\, and where the quiet\, persistent act of making becomes a form of resistance. \nAcross media and gesture\, Ellzey explores how we survive: by circling back\, by touching what has been lost\, by naming what others ignore. Rolling\, collecting\, documenting\, layering—these are his rituals. Some are personal. Some are political. All are acts of reckoning. \nThe spiral is his recurring form. It turns through the exhibition like a silent logic\, natural\, ancestral\, unstoppable. It is found in architecture\, in emotion\, in protest\, in paper. Each gesture becomes a structure. Each structure becomes a kind of refuge. \nThis is work that blurs the line between the sacred and the ordinary\, between the deeply interior and the publicly defiant. There are no beginnings or endings here\, only movement\, only return. \nReflection + Ritual + Refuge is not a single story\, but a field of them. It invites the viewer to look closer\, to enter slowly\, to see how something small\, repeated\, can become something vast. \nBrantley Ellzey is a Memphis-based artist known for transforming everyday printed materials into sculptural works that explore memory\, place\, and cultural identity. Raised in Osceola\, Arkansas\, and trained at Tulane University in Theater and Architecture\, Ellzey brings a multidisciplinary approach that blends architecture\, design\, and storytelling. His work appears in collections across the country\, including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital\, Steelcase\, Conde Nast\, and Nicole Kidman’s production headquarters.
URL:https://crosstownarts.org/calendar/brantley-ellzey-reflection-ritual-refuge/
LOCATION:Crosstown Arts Galleries\, 1350 Concourse Ave.\, Suite 280\, Memphis\, TN\, 38104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Gallery
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SUMMARY:Opening Reception: Brantley Ellzey - Reflection + Ritual + Refuge
DESCRIPTION:Friday\, October 10\, 2025 | 6-9 pm | Crosstown Arts Galleries\nFree and open to the public \nJoin us for the opening of Reflection + Ritual + Refuge\, a major solo exhibition by Memphis-based artist Brantley Ellzey. \nBrantley Ellzey\n\n\n\nREFLECTION + RITUAL + REFUGE STATEMENT\n\nIn Reflection + Ritual + Refuge\, artist Brantley Ellzey weaves a world where repetition becomes\nremembrance\, where reflection fractures into beauty\, and where the quiet\, persistent act of making\nbecomes a form of resistance.\nAcross media and gesture\, Ellzey explores how we survive—by circling back\, by touching what’s been\nlost\, by naming what others ignore. Rolling\, collecting\, documenting\, layering—these are his rituals. Some\nare personal. Some are political. All are acts of reckoning.\nThe spiral is his recurring form. It turns through the exhibition like a silent logic—natural\, ancestral\,\nunstoppable. It’s found in architecture\, in emotion\, in protest\, in paper. Each gesture becomes a structure.\nEach structure becomes a kind of refuge.\nThis is work that blurs the line between the sacred and the ordinary. Between the deeply interior and the\npublicly defiant. There are no beginnings or endings here—only movement\, only return.\nReflection + Ritual + Refuge is not a single story\, but a field of them. It invites the viewer to look closer\, to\nenter slowly\, to see how something small—repeated—can become something vast.\n\n\n\n\nARTIST BIO (Revised)\n\nBrantley Ellzey is a Memphis-based artist known for transforming everyday printed materials into\nsculptural works that explore memory\, place\, and cultural identity. Raised in Osceola\, Arkansas\, and\ntrained at Tulane University in Theater and Architecture\, Ellzey brings a unique\, multidisciplinary\napproach to his work—blending architecture\, design\, and storytelling.\nEllzey has played a vital role in Memphis’s creative landscape\, first establishing his studio in the heart of\nCrosstown. His current space at Summer Avenue and Baltic Street continues to serve as both a working\nstudio and gallery.\nEllzey’s work appears in collections across the country\, including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital\,\nSteelcase\, Conde Nast and Nicole Kidman’s production headquarters. His art invites viewers to see the\nbeauty and meaning in what’s often overlooked.\n\n\n\nARTIST BIO (East Atrium)\nBRANTLEY ELLZEY\nREFLECTION + RITUAL + REFUGE\nREFLECTIONS\nIn a world of relentless motion and media noise\, the Reflections installation ("Reflections" being a nod to a\nstoried gay bar in Memphis.) invites the viewer into a space of quiet disorientation—where distortion\nreveals deeper truths.\nUsing rolled mirrored mylar as both material and metaphor\, this body of work challenges our relationship\nwith perception. The surfaces ripple\, fracture\, and fold light into fragmented realities\, evoking the tension\nbetween clarity and chaos. Echoing the Hypostyle Hall in Luxor\, Egypt—where towering columns once\nhoused ritual\, reverence\, and collective awe—this installation transforms the gallery into a contemporary\nsanctuary. The space becomes both architectural and emotional: a forest of mirrored pillars that hold not\njust structure\, but memory.\nThe act of rolling—a primal\, physical gesture—becomes a meditative ritual\, a way to process the\nturbulence of current events and personal anxieties. Meticulous yet destabilizing\, the work invites viewers\n\nto confront their own shifting perspectives. The mirrored mylar refuses to offer a perfect reflection;\ninstead\, it bends the familiar into the uncanny\, revealing how fragile and flexible our realities truly are.\nThis installation honors reflection as a radical act\, ritual as a survival mechanism\, and refuge as a\nnecessary\, sacred space.\n\n\n\n\nARTIST STATEMENT (East Gallery)\nBRANTLEY ELLZEY\nREFLECTION + RITUAL + REFUGE\nSPIRAL ARCHITECTURES\nIn Spiral Architectures\, the act of rolling paper becomes both a personal ritual and a sculptural meditation\non time\, memory\, and survival. Composed of rolled vintage magazines\, construction paper\, a complete\n1962 encyclopedia\, targets\, Mylar\, cellophane and hand-stamped black paper marking every day the\nartist has been alive\, this installation turns an ordinary gesture into an extraordinary archive.\nDrawing inspiration from a childhood memory—a local craftsperson in the artist’s hometown who worked\nwith rolled paper— Spiral Architectures reclaims that modest tradition and reimagines it as a practice of\nresilience. Each roll becomes a vessel: of cultural ideals\, domestic fantasies\, gendered expectations\,\nhistorical knowledge\, and the private rituals of a life lived through seismic personal and collective events.\nThis is a space where time is both compressed and expansive. The repetitive gesture of rolling\,\nperformed over and over\, mirrors the mental and emotional work required to process life's challenges.\nThe materials—both personal and public\, nostalgic and overlooked—are transformed into quiet\nmonuments.\nLike the mirrored columns in the adjacent space\, these works reflect a desire for order in the face of\nchaos. But while the columns reach outward and upward\, Spiral Architectures turns inward\, into\nmemory—into the places of refuge we build within ourselves.\n\n\n\nARTIST STATEMENT (East Gallery – Small Room)\nBRANTLEY ELLZEY\nRFLECTION + RITUAL + REFUGE\n2025 PROJECT\n2025 Project confronts the sharp edge of the present moment—where reflection gives way to resistance\,\nand refuge is found not in memory but in the uncompromising act of creation.\nThis section uses the same ritual of rolling paper found throughout Reflection + Ritual + Refuge\, but here\nthe material is weaponized. Pages from Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise are rolled\nand overlaid with the image of an oversized hand gripping a gun. Nearby\, printed shooting targets—also\nrolled—are clustered in groupings\, their form echoing both vulnerability and defense. These works refuse\nsubtlety; they inhabit a space of threat\, visibility\, and protest.\nAs a queer artist\, the creator of this work grapples with a growing fear for the future—particularly the\nfragility of hard-won rights like same-sex marriage. 2025 Project names the unspoken: that the LGBTQI+\ncommunity is being deliberately targeted by political and religious forces who cloak intolerance in the\nlanguage of “values.”\nUnlike the other sections\, which look inward or backward to memory and ritual for solace\, this work offers\nno comfort. Instead\, it insists on visibility. It is both a warning and a refusal to be erased. The only refuge\nhere is found in resistance—through protest\, through truth-telling\, and through the act of making art when\nthe world demands silence.\n\n\n\nARTIST STATEMENT (Screening Room)\nBRANTLEY ELLZEY\nREFLECTION + RITUAL + REFUGE\nEVERYTHING TURNS\nThere is a rhythm beneath the visible world\, a pattern older than language\, deeper than memory.\nEverything Turns is a meditation on that turning—on the spiral as both structure and spell.\nIn this first experimental film by the artist\, the act of rolling becomes ritual – a quiet conjuring\, a way of\nshaping chaos into meaning. The spiral appears not only in nature—in storms\, galaxies\, seashells—but in\nthe body\, in breath\, in grief\, in healing. To roll is to draw energy inward. To coil. To contain. To remember.\nConnected to the broader exhibition through gesture and material\, Everything Turns expands the central\nact of rolling into a cosmology—a kinetic ritual that links body to world\, past to present\, and the personal\nto the planetary.\n\n\n\nARTIST STATEMENT (West Gallery)\nBRANTLEY ELLZEY\nREFLECTION + RITUAL + REFUGE\nSPECIAL PROJECTS\nSpecial Projects offers a window into the artist’s expanded practice—a space where ritual meets curiosity\,\nand art becomes an act of noticing\, collecting\, and reshaping the world.\nWhether documenting found objects unearthed while gathering trash at his inner-city studio\, protesting\nthe silent vandalism of historic buildings through the Memphis Masonry Preservation Society\, listing small\nacts of love during a year of crisis (Love List 2020)\, restaging the language of advertising to subvert\npower\,  ready-mades\, and intimate portraits of meals shared with his husband\, the artist weaves humor\,\nactivism\, sensitivity\, and critique into a practice rooted in paying attention.  These special projects reveal\nthe artist’s impulse to organize chaos\, to ritualize the everyday\, and to blur the line between personal\narchive and public performance.\nHere\, photography\, social media\, and found materials become not just tools—but rituals. This is art as\ndocumentation\, as resistance\, as a kind of spiritual filing system. There is no hierarchy of material\, no\nfixed path through the works on display —only the result of a mind mapping meaning through every\ndetail.\n 
URL:https://crosstownarts.org/calendar/opening-reception-brantley-ellzey-reflection-ritual-refuge/
LOCATION:Crosstown Arts Galleries\, 1350 Concourse Ave.\, Suite 280\, Memphis\, TN\, 38104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Gallery
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