Torrance Art Museum presents British artist Zavier Ellis’s first solo exhibition at an institution in Los Angeles. Sites of Conflict is both a timely and significant exhibition exploring the political and ideological struggles that shape global power today.
Using layered abstraction, collage, and text, Ellis creates complex works that reflect on revolutions, resistance, propaganda, and protest.
“This exhibition becomes more prescient by the day. We’re opening ‘Sites of Conflict’ on the day of Trump’s birthday, the military parade, and No Kings Protest, in a city that has become a site of conflict. I’m exploring power, democracy and authoritarianism through the lens of revolution, resistance, and protest, whilst Trump is demonstrating all of our fears live on the streets of LA. And this is just the beginning.”
Zavier Ellis
Sites of Conflict examines how persistent patterns—manipulation, propaganda, and nationalism recur throughout history. Ellis shows that political struggles and divisions don’t exist in isolation but form part of a broader pattern of repetition and transformation. Movements like the French Revolution, the Civil Rights era, and today’s culture wars are presented as chapters in a larger, interconnected story—one where power structures evolve, rebrand, and resurface.
A key focus of Ellis’s work is the mechanics of political messaging. Throughout the exhibition, he draws on protest signs, propaganda, posters, and graffiti—layering and distressing them to create surfaces that appear weathered and torn, evoking city walls from across the globe. These overlaid textures reflect how public messages are constantly shaped, challenged, erased, and rewritten.
At the centre of the exhibition is the large-scale work ‘Demokratía’ (6.6 x 9.8 feet / 2 x 3 meters), which brings together events such as the founding of the United States and its history of slavery, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Haitian Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, and current conflicts in Israel and Ukraine. Ellis includes figures such as Moses, Robespierre, Cromwell, Trump, and Musk to examine how political language and propaganda shape our understanding of power. He draws connections between different ideologies and historical moments, revealing how they influence one another and continue to shape the present.
In this way, ‘Sites of Conflict’ offers a powerful reflection on how history repeats and reshapes itself.
Ellis doesn’t propose clear answers or a single viewpoint. Instead, he asks us to consider how meaning and power shift over time—and how the surface of his work reflects the contested, everchanging world we live in. As both an artist and curator, this exhibition marks one of Ellis’s most ambitious explorations of control, resistance, and repetition.
Curated by Max Presneill Director/ Head Curator – Torrance Art Museum.
Zavier Ellis Sites of Conflict, 14th June– 26th July 2025 Torrance Art Museum, L.A.
Art Opening Saturday 14th June 2025 6PM-9PM
About the artist
Zavier Ellis read History of Modern Art at Manchester University (1993-1996) before undertaking a Masters in Fine Art at City & Guilds of London Art School (2003-2005). He has exhibited alongside contemporary and 20th century artists including Peter Blake, Michael Craig-Martin, Marcus Harvey, Damien Hirst, Julian Opie, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Derek Ridgers, Antoni Tàpies, Mark Titchner, Gavin Turk, Keith Tyson and Mark Wallinger. Ellis has exhibited globally including Museum der Moderne, Salzburg; Pera Museum, Istanbul; Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles; Saatchi Gallery, London; Klaipda Culture Communication Centre, Klaip?da; Royal West Academy, Bristol; Dean Clough, Halifax; Paul Stolper, London; Galerie Heike Strelow, Frankfurt; Raid Projects, Los Angeles; ENIA Gallery, Pireas; and Blond Contemporary, London. His work is featured in prominent private collections including the seminal Sammlung Annette und Peter Nobel, Zurich and Beth Rudin DeWoody, West Palm Beach.
