Two-Person Show — with Dana Ellyn

Full text

Copied from Dana Ellyn's 2013 exhibition page, October 18, 2026.

Domesticated : the recent paintings of Washington, DC married artists Dana Ellyn and Matt Sesow WASHINGTON, DC – Dana Ellyn and Matt Sesow have created an exhibition focusing on their definition "domestication". The DC artist power-couple who met in 2001 and married at the height of a historic snow storm in 2010, have created a series of paintings that celebrate their philosophy on life, art, and being married. Sesow's popular animal creatures and icons are an expected interpretation of his work, as are Ellyn's familiar creations that celebrate her vegetarian lifestyle and respect for animal rights. "Domesticated" takes an unexpected turn with the artist's interpretation of marriage. They live and create paintings separately throughout their creative week. Sesow in Adams Morgan while Ellyn is downtown in her subsidized artist housing at Mather Studios. Their living situation is non-traditional; however, it works, and perhaps the only way married artists can continue to create is separately. Additionally, marriage has somewhat 'domesticated' the reckless animal spirit of Sesow, making him more focused and able to create a concentrated body of work - with spurts of primitive behavior (oftentimes alone during long creative sessions from his Adams Morgan studio). Whereas Ellyn's "domestication" has given her the confidence of commitment, process, and much needed "quiet time". Ellyn's paintings come from long periods of quiet and study, where she is able to carefully plan the composition, and execution of her work. Together the duo of Sesow and Ellyn are eclectic, unexpected, non-traditional, but unmistakably "domesticated", at least according to their definition