Curious mind. Detailed eye. Creative spirit.

Ellen Sturm Niz is an emerging interdisciplinary artist, curator, and arts administrator.

Ellen was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1975 and studied dance and theater as a young adult. She explored visual arts and photography at the Dayton Art Institute and University of Dayton before receiving a Bachelor's of Science from the Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. She then moved to New York City and worked as a writer and editor for magazines and websites for more than 20 years, curating and managing the creation of content for a variety of audiences.

Throughout her journey, Ellen continued photography and began exploring other media, including plastics fabrication, jewelry silversmithing, and acrylic painting, before coming to sculpture, collage, and printmaking through instruction at the Noguchi Museum, the Art Students League of New York, the Woodstock School of Art, and the 92nd Street Y.

In her visual artwork, Ellen regularly employs stone, wood, textiles, paint, and photography. Her work explores how creativity and craft can encourage mindfulness, inspire inner reflection, and bring joy. Her work aims to connect us to ourselves and others, highlighting our shared experiences.

Ellen’s visual art has been shown at Susan Eley Fine Art in Manhattan; Local Project in Long Island City; Emerge Gallery in Saugerties, NY; and in online exhibits at LICArtists and Art From the Epicenter. Several of her photographs are part of the permanent collection at the Dayton Art Institute in Ohio and other pieces of her work are held in private collections in Ohio, Florida, and New York.

Ellen also reconnected with the performing arts, exploring improv and immersive theater. She is a founding member of the inaugural house team of FoHi Improv and participated in an immersive theater production, PURE by Christian Bakalov, during the Drama League's 2020 DirectorFest at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center.

Ellen has also combined her artistic vision and management skills in curatorial work, arts events programming, and arts administration. In order to better support artists and provide meaningful cultural experiences to communities, she is studying curatorial theory and practice through the Node Center for Curatorial Studies in Berlin.

In 2021, Ellen was named as one of five Art Commissioners for the Queens Council on the Arts’ Artist Commissioning Program (ACP). The ACP democratizes the traditional commissioning progress by enabling local community members, or “art commissioners,” to fill gaps in American culture by awarding 10k and 2k commissions to Queens dance projects. The 2021-22 ACP funded choreographers, dance artists, and small dance organizations to tell untold stories that highlighted underrepresented protagonists. By commissioning artists to materialize works that resonate with Queens communities, the ACP aims to create a cultural sector more reflective of the diversity of the borough and the nation.

In 2022, Ellen curated the first conceptual art show at The Art Students League of New York; produced a series of Instagram Live talks with interdisciplinary artist Elizabeth Demaray at the LMCC Arts Center on Governors Island; and curated a Summer Salon series of works by local artists and makers at Atelier Canal in Gowanus, Brooklyn.

In 2023, Ellen served as a panelist for the Artists in Queens Grant, a New York State Council on the Arts, Statewide Community Regrants Program (formerly the Decentralization program), administered by Flushing Town Hall.

Ellen is pleased to have joined Amos Eno Gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn, as its Director in January 2023. Amos Eno Gallery is a nonprofit art gallery providing a full season of exhibits by emerging and mid-career artists working in visual, performance, installation, interactive, and/or digital media/video. As an alternative, artist-run platform for professional artists in a variety of media, the gallery gives precedence to artistic expression freed from commercial restraints. Located at 56 Bogart Street, on the first floor in the central hallway of this established gallery building, its location places artists in one of the centers of the Bushwick art scene, directly across the street from the Morgan Avenue L train stop. By presenting a rich schedule of exhibitions and participatory events, we help promote the cultural growth of our community.

Ellen lives with her husband and daughter in Jackson Heights, Queens.