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On View: Elise Ansel

Abstract gold, grey, and red painting on a black background

Booking and details

Plan your visit

Dates Fri, Oct 3 – Sun, Nov 9, 2025

Venue Stuart and Mimi Rose Rare Book and Manuscript Exhibition Hall

Tickets Free; timed-entry pass recommended

While “Old Master” paintings were largely created by men for men, Elise Ansel disrupts this viewpoint by creating feminist translations in oil paint. By employing the open-ended visual languages of color and abstraction, she creates new ways of looking and engaging for modern viewers. As a fellow, Ansel deploys this framework to reinterpret Henry Fuseli’s Macbeth Consulting the Vision of the Armed Head (1793), held in the Folger collection.

About Contemporary Art at the Folger

Each year, the Folger Shakespeare Library awards fellowships to artists whose creative work is grounded in research on the stories, art, and objects in our collection. From October 2025 to April 2026, the Folger will feature boutique-style solo shows highlighting selected works by artist fellows from across the country. The series will conclude with a final exhibition at Transformer DC, in the Logan Circle neighborhood.

About the artist

Elise Ansel
Photo of Elise Ansel

Elise Ansel

About Folger Institute

The Folger Institute is a center for early modern research at the Folger Shakespeare Library that brings public audiences together with researchers to explore the cultures and legacies of the early modern world. Learn more.