ARDOR: Ellie Vergura

Jackson Junge Gallery is proud to present ARDOR, a solo exhibition featuring sixteen paintings by Chicago artist Ellie Vergura. ARDOR is a celebration of Vergura’s emerging art career and her development of a distinct painting style that is already gaining popularity with collectors all around the world. Vergura is one of Jackson Junge Gallery’s newest in-house artists, represented by the gallery year-round.  

This body of work began with one word - “ardor” - meaning to have a strong love and passion for something. Vergura uses the word to describe her feelings for Chicago upon moving here post-college. It also describes the feeling she gets when she visits a location that sparks admiration and artistic inspiration. Every piece in the exhibition represents a place that gave Vergura what she calls “that ardor moment”.

Vergura’s paintings focus on scenery and landmarks, as well as the people who visit them. Over the past few years, she has developed a style that at times leans realistic and representational, other times looser and more impressionistic. Preferring to use a light, neutral color palette that mirrors the colors and tones of the architecture she paints, she creates dreamy and timeless interpretations of each location. Dark figures float through these spaces in stark contrast to the soft scenery. 

The painting that provided both the direction for this series and the name for the exhibition is “Ardor”, a painting that symbolizes Vergura’s love for her city, Chicago. While it does not feature any identifiable landmarks, anyone who has walked south on Michigan Avenue towards the Art Institute can tell that it has a distinctly Chicago feel to it. It shows a street lined with trees and buildings that fade into the distance. The main character of the scene has a grace and fashionable elegance to them- a nod to the work of one of Vergura’s greatest influences, her great grandmother. An accomplished fashion illustrator during the 1920’s and lifelong artist, Vergura’s great grandmother has provided a great deal of inspiration to Vergura in multiple areas of her life.

All the paintings in ARDOR feature a place Vergura has visited in person. As much as she would like to draw or paint on location, photography plays a significant role in helping her develop a piece. Vergura is fascinated by the variation in how different artists interpret the same landmark. “Buckingham Fountain” represents Chicago’s famous fountain which has been the subject of many artworks since it’s construction in 1927. In her words, “we all are seeing the same scene, but how are we depicting it?” In Vergura’s case, crafting a story about who would visit and what led them there helps create her own unique depiction.

In the case of her more abstract and dreamlike paintings, the focus is more on the figures in the foreground and how they are experiencing the scene. An example is “London, England” featuring St. Paul’s Cathedral, where the viewer will be able to appreciate her more impressionistic approach to her cityscapes. Vergura recently went on a trip to London and found the variation in architecture throughout the city reminded her of her home here in Chicago. Architecture plays a big role in Vergura’s work, providing her with a symmetrical focal point to anchor her compositions and a setting for her fashionable characters to explore. The balance between colors and tone that she finds in the architecture of certain cities contributes heavily to her painting style.

Vergura’s paintings are not just about scenery, but our relationship to it and how it makes us feel. Some pieces are more straightforward in showing us an experience; others leave it up to our imagination and past experiences to fill in the gaps. But each one conveys those feelings of ardor for a place or a moment in time, whether it be a location in our own city or one we travel to visit.

ARDOR, a solo exhibition featuring sixteen paintings by Ellie Vergura will be on display at Jackson Junge Gallery August 19th - September 22nd, 2024.  Please join us for an opening reception on Friday, August 23rd, 6pm-9pm. The reception is free and open to the public.

ARDOR is curated by Gallery Director Kaitlyn Miller and Gallery Assistant Maddie Kirmse.