Ellie Pratt’s Ego Crush comprises a new series of miniature-to-large scale works created over the past year, marking the British artist’s  debut solo exhibition in the United States. Ego Crush is a continuation of Pratt’s investigation into the meeting of opposing energies, here negotiating the complexities associated with reflections as a notion and a whole; as a means for further understanding of oneself and others. Drawing from a range of cultural influence, from pop music lyrics to French Impressionist painters, Pratt is  invested in working in a way that captures the “sense of something,” in her terms, rather than seeking a more literal depiction. The  artist offers a window into the precarious grounds of the unconscious, introducing a surreal world of shifting perspectives that haunts  and seduces. The below text offers a further set of reflections and another approach to describing this project. 

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Step into this other world with me. 

Is there something on the other side of this reflection? 

Do you feel the weight of the upstairs gallery? 

The sky and the water—the mirror—a world of distorted perspectives overwhelms me. 

Time is shifting… 

What does my reflection want from me? 

Fleeting moments in daily life freeze into portals. 

They are delicate. 

Am I hiding, or making an appearance? Don’t look at me. No, I’m only teasing. Don’t stop staring. 

Do I look familiar? Do you see yourself? 

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I have become Picabia’s layering of paint. 

Monet’s water lilies fog up my reflection. 

Let me break this mirror; show you who I really am. 

Ouch. 

The texture of this glass is sharp, and then some of its edges feel smooth and tender. 

I welcome this wrestling in self-perception, an exorcism of desire. 

I am a dreamer. 

Have I swallowed a cloudy sky like Haruki Murakami? 

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The good, the bad, the ugly. The sinister and the romantic. The teenage melancholy. 

Déjà vu. 

The ceiling is closing in on me. 

It’s about to collapse. 

You are in the anti-space, in my intimate teenage bedroom, where anything is possible. 

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—Charlotte Eytan 

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Ellie Pratt (b. 1991, Kent) is a painter who lives and works in London. She received a BA from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2013  and an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in 2015. Recent projects include a solo exhibition at PmAm (London) and group presentations with Workplace Gallery (London), Linseed Projects (Shanghai), The Artist Room x Philips (South Korea), LVH Art  (Venice), Particle Collection x Philips (Miami), and Stems Gallery x Volery Gallery (Dubai). Following Ego Crush in New York, Pratt will present a forthcoming solo exhibition at South Parade (London). 

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Charlotte Eytan is an independent curator, writer, advisor, and Director of Particle Foundation; working with emerging artists, museums, and private collections. She has held positions as a Director for Maximillian William in London and a writer/cataloguer at Christie’s in the Post-War and Contemporary Department. Her recent written contributions include an essay for Coco Capitan’s book Naivy, various commissioned texts for Phaidon’s PRIME publication on artists under the age of forty, an interview with Sophie Von Hellerman for the Debutante, and a text for The Greatest Magazine.