Ellen’s artwork has featured in over 130 exhibitions worldwide, in galleries, museums, festivals and public spaces.
Some highlights include:
Antoni Gaudi’s famous Casa Batllo in Barcelona (on 3 different occasions)
De Oude Kerk Church, Amsterdam’s iconic historical church located in the Red Light District
A giant billboard in New Orleans for the Mardi Gras parade
MOYA (Museum of Young Art) Vienna
Grote of Sint-Laurenskerk, Rotterdam
London Underground public art exhibition (on 2 different occasions)
Oxford Town Hall in the historic city of Oxford, England
Brisbane Powerhouse (Brisbane Festival)
Live painting at the Australian Museum
Other cities Ellen has exhibited in include Tokyo, Istanbul, Los Angeles, Sao Paulo, Tel Aviv, Lisbon, Melbourne, Sydney and Vancouver.
She has also had solo exhibitions in both Brisbane and Berlin.
‘HARMONIZE’ EXHIBITION - CHENREZIG INSTITUTE
HARMONIZE exhibition, brings together artists, art lovers, poets, musicians, friends and family to celebrate the artworks, live music, poetry, hot chai and delicious finger food.
Chenrezig Tibetan Buddhist Centre, is a dedicated facility for Buddhist education and practice. It is a place where sentient beings can come to learn Dharma, meditate, purify and collect merits. Many great Buddhist masters including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, many rinpoches, yogis and Tibetan and western sangha, have been hosted here while teaching their profound wisdom, insights and practices on the Buddhist path.
‘ONBOART’ EXHIBITION
‘Onboart’ Exhibition is a pioneering collaboration between Vueling® Airlines and Contemporary Art Station.
As the first-ever art exhibition held within the confines of an aircraft, this one-of-a-kind spectacle showcases a selection of international artists for one month, to an audience of millions of international passengers, transcending the traditional confines of gallery walls and reaching new altitudes of exposure.
AFFIRMATION CARDS LAUNCH PARTY
BRISBANE SOLO EXHIBITION
BARCELONA - CASA BATLLO
BARCELONA SHOWCASE - IN ANTONI GAUDI'S FAMOUS CASA BATLLO
In 2012 Ellen was invited to exhibit her artwork at the Barcelona Showcase International Art Exhibition in Antoni Gaudi's architectural masterpiece Casa Batllo.
"Ellen's artwork stood out, giving a positive vibe and a colourful display which complimented Gaudi's Casa Batllo building beautifully. Visitors were instantly attracted to her work and she received a lot of great feedback. It came to no surprise that Curators selected Ellen from over 150 talented international artists as the proud winner of the Barcelona Showcase Best Artist Award." -GAA
With this astounding achievement Ellen was honoured to be invited to return to Barcelona to exhibit her artwork for a second and third time in the iconic Casa Batllo building at Barcelona Showcase 2013 and 2014, again both extremely successful exhibitions.
Announced as one of world’s top emerging art events Barcelona Showcase features contemporary fine art by selected international artists showcased in Antoni Gaudi’s world famous Casa Batllo building in the heart of vibrant Barcelona. This one-day pop-up art exhibition features works from top emerging contemporary Artists & Galleries from all over the globe with over 3600 visitors, a record breaking number of visitors.
BERLIN SOLO EXHIBITION
In September 2019 Ellen exhibited her colourful, positive, eclectic art in Berlin to raise awareness for Endangered animals.
This exciting exhibition was a collection of her paintings and large scale prints, shown in the beautiful and unique venue DER KOLIBRI - right in the hub of the vibrant cultural neighbourhood Kreuzberg.
This show focused on the beauty, wonder and excitement of our natural world depicted in Ellen’s very unique style.
Profits from the exhibition were donated to adopt an 2 orphaned elephants and an orphaned rhino with The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.
AMSTERDAM ART FAIR
AMSTERDAM SHOWCASE - INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR - IN DE OUDE KERK
In 2012 Ellen was invited to exhibit her art at Amsterdam Showcase in the iconic 'de Oude Kerk' (Amsterdam's famous historical church).
Two-hundred of the most talented artists and art galleries exhibited a wide variety of high quality contemporary art pieces for Amsterdam Showcase 2012.
Artists traveled from as far as Japan, USA, The UK, China, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, and even from Australia to exhibit, show and sell their amazing works at this exclusive art event.
This one-day event in the heart of vibrant Amsterdam attracted over 2500 visitors giving the art-loving crowd in the Netherlands (and rest of Europe) the opportunity to meet World’s most amazing and top emerging artists.
"MUST-SEE'S AT AMSTERDAM SHOWCASE:
Award-winning artist Ellen Stapleton will be traveling all the way from Australia to exhibit her famous street & tattoo art inspired work. Ellen's art is known to be contemporary, urban with traditional Eastern imagery drawing a fine line between Contemporary and Traditional. Ellen recently won Barcelona Showcase Artist Award and received great feedback. A definite must see at Amsterdam Showcase!"
- Global Art Agency Press Release
ABOUT DE OUDE KERK
The famous historical church in Amsterdam De Oude Kerk ("The Old Church") is Amsterdam's oldest parish church, consecrated in 1306 by the bishop of Utrecht with Saint Nicolas as it's patron saint. It stands in De Wallen, the heart of vibrant Amsterdam, and is surrounded by de Oudekerksquare.
The floor consists entirely of gravestones. The reason for this is that the church was built on a cemetery. Local citizens continued to be buried on the site within the confines of the church until 1865. There are 2300 graves in the Oude Kerk, under which are buried 10,000 Amsterdam citizens.
Rembrandt was a frequent visitor to De Oude Kerk and his children were all christened here. It is the only building in Amsterdam that remains in it's original state since Rembrandt walked it's halls. His wife "Saskia" van Uylenburgh was buried here in 1782.
BERLIN YOGA, ART & ACTIVISM
NEW ORLEANS - MARDI GRAS
BILLBOARD AT NEW ORLEANS MARDI GRAS PARADE
In 2012 Ellen was invited to take part in a very exciting pop up billboard exhibition for the New Orleans Mardi Gras festival.
A curated selection of 20 international artist from Italy, Spain, Australia, The UK, Sweden, USA and more exhibited their artwork on giant billboards flanking the major Mardi Gras parade route.
Billboard space used normally for advertising became a feature of contemporary art with a diverse range of techniques enhancing the city's unique cityscape with even more color during the most festive time of the year.
Running alongside the billboard show was an exhibition of the artist's original works at Gallery Orange based in the heart of the French quarter, with a exhibition launch event and a Mardi Gras style party.
OXFORD ART FAIR
OXFORD ART INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR
The first ever OXFORD INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR was a huge success. Nearly 4000 people visited the art fair. Many sales were made and a huge amount of excellent press reviews were received including a feature on BBC Two's 'The Culture Show'.
Ellen's skateboard comission for 'The Artboards' was exhibited alongside Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Vincent van Gogh's Self Portrait and Sunflowers and Nini Martini's contemporary Artboards.
The event started with an opening preview on Friday night, featuring music and live painting sessions and continued over the weekend. All of the artwork shown was available to buy, giving Art Collectors and Art Enthusiast a rare opportunity to buy directly from the artist - some travelling from as far as Japan, Russia and India to exhibit their artwork at the Oxford International Art Fair in the stunning Oxford Town Hall, a jewel at the heart of the historic city of Oxford.
BRISBANE POWERHOUSE
HANAKO - ART INSPIRED BY THE PERFORMANCE
AT BRISBANE POWERHOUSE - PRESENTED BY BRISBANE FESTIVAL & BELLOO CREATIVE
Sparked by a classic Japanese tale of dominance and desire, HANAKO - ART INSPIRED BY THE PERFORMANCE is a bold, visually dynamic group exhibition curated by local multidisciplinary creative Tiffany Atkin.
Featuring the work of 12 Brisbane artists, pieces vary from the daintily intricate and innocent to the outrageously provocative and complex. A mash-up of pop culture, desire and eroticism juxtaposed against traditional Japanese art and iconography.
The exhibition features a selection of silkscreen prints on tosa paper, acrylic and ink on canvas, copic markers on card, ink and digital prints, giclee print and mixed media on origami paper and canvas from some of Brisbane’s most exciting contemporary visual artists.
FEATURING: MOSESSA, ELLEN STAPLETON , TIFFANY ATKIN , MEL BAXTER, KENNETH BECK, ELLIE ANDERSON, ADAM BUSBY, ELANA MULLALY, TEAMNIGH, BRAIDY HUGHES, MAXINE GROVE, BRYDIE COSSAR
ISTANBUL PAPERGIRL
PAPERGIRL WORLDWIDE "The Art of Giving Art"
Ellen has participated in 7 Papergirl events to date in Barcelona, San Francisco, Vancouver, Manchester, Leeds, Brisbane and Istanbul.
Papergirl is a community street art project where art is collected from an international creative community, exhibited in a gallery, rolled up, and then, in the style of American paperboys, distributed by bicycle in city centres, to random passers-by.
The project started in response to a new law introduced in Berlin which make it a criminal offence to post art in public places. Hence Papergirl was founded whereby works of art are handed directly to the general public at random, similar to how newspapers were distributed in decades past.
Any volunteer is welcome to join and distribute the artwork with the group. The ethos behind Papergirl is to have fun as a group of people and to make other people happy whilst doing so.
PAPERGIRL ISTANBUL
On May 26th 2011, Milk Gallery hosted one of the most interdisciplinary and crowded group shows of it's life for the opening for Papergirl Istanbul exhibition. Artist talks were held at the gallery by Aisha Ronniger, the founder of Papergirl, Roland Piltz and Tika talking about the Papergirl process and street art, along with an artist talk by Marcus Graf about implementations of art on public spaces in Turkey. May 28th and June 11th were two 'action' days where more than 400 art rolls with over than 2000 artworks were distributed to lucky people in the streets of Istanbul.
BARCELONA - LIVING IS EASY
AND THE LIVING IS EASY - UNTITLED BCN GALLERY, BARCELONA
Colourful group exhibition featuring 10 diverse artists from Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador and Australia
AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM
LIVE PAINTING AT JURASSIC LOUNGE, AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM
In April 2012 Ellen was invited to travel to Sydney to paint live at 'Lock up Your Sons' held at the Australian Museum as part of Jurassic Lounge.
Ellen created Live Art, Claire Hooper from Good News Week was Storytelling, there was African dancing, stunning burlesque, bellydancing, live music and more!
NATIONAL GALLERY AUSTRALIA
Space invaders: australian street, stencils, posters, paste-ups, zines, stickers is a travelling exhibition from the National Gallery of Australia.
This exciting exhibition looks at street art of the past 10 years by more than 40 of the most prolific and infamous street artists working in Australia today. The works are from the National Gallery of Australia’s growing collection of street art—the only one of its kind in an Australian public gallery.
“The exhibition delves into the complex and challenging side of the contemporary Australian street-art scene showcasing more than 150 works created by artists from across the country.”
Space invaders brings together works created by street artists whose practice has not only transformed their cityscapes but has breached the boundaries of major galleries.
BERLIN PILLAR OF ART - PUBLIC ART EXHIBITION
Ellen's artwork was selected to be exhibited on a 14 foot high Pillar in Berlin for the BERLIN PILLAR OF ART Public Art Exhibition.
This outdoor exhibition was held in the districts of Berlin Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg where an internationally renowned gallery scene is booming.
LONDON UNDERGROUND - PUBLIC ART EXHIBITION
In both 2010 and 2011 Ellen was selected to showcase her artwork to a audience of thousands of commuters in the London Underground as part of the 'Art Below' exhibitions.
Large high quality prints of her artworks were displayed at Baker Street Station and Old Street Station each for a period of two weeks.
Art Below creates a public gallery in London's most iconic underground stations, using billboard space to display the work of top emerging and highly acclaimed international artists; 'Turning Ad Space Into Art Space'.
Art Below's mission: To enrich the everyday lives of the traveling public by giving fresh insight into the very latest in contemporary art.
Art Below has played host to a rich and diverse portfolio of talent including Banksy, Alison Jackson, Paul Fryer, Mat Collishaw, Antony Micallef, Charming Baker, Billy Childish, Ben Eine, and Max Hattler.
"Directional art with an unorthodox backdrop lends Art Below it's fresh, original edge that's currently causing a creative awakening amongst commuters" -THE GUARDIAN