Ella West Gallery

Ella West Gallery Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Ella West Gallery, Art Gallery, 104 W. Parrish Street, Durham, NC.

Ella West Gallery stands as a beacon of innovation and cultural significance in North Carolina's art scene, proudly recognized as the state’s only Black woman-owned gallery.

As art advisors, our role extends beyond placement and acquisition. We believe in building bridges between collectors, i...
06/15/2026

As art advisors, our role extends beyond placement and acquisition. We believe in building bridges between collectors, institutions, and cities to help safeguard cultural memory. In an age where history is contested and truth is increasingly fragile, art becomes a living record. But without stewardship, that record risks disappearing.

But preservation doesn’t happen by accident. It requires intentional stewardship, collaboration, and a shared commitment to ensuring these narratives remain accessible for future generations.

The future of stewardship is collaborative and we’re excited to share more about what that can look like.

Artwork spotlight: Alabama Quilting: A Handed Down TraditionJō Baskerville 36 x 36, Mixed Media on Canvas, 2025Intereste...
06/10/2026

Artwork spotlight:
Alabama Quilting: A Handed Down Tradition
Jō Baskerville
36 x 36, Mixed Media on Canvas, 2025

Interested in adding this to your collection? Send us a DM for details.

Jō Baskerville, a Virginia native now working in Atlanta, is a mixed media artist whose work explores identity, culture, and transformation. Because he finds transit and the ability to move and explore so integral to the creative process, he uses public and affordable transit to explore communities and, in turn, tell the stories of the people who live in them. His art, which focuses on global humanity, culture, and fashion, is characterized by contemporary silhouettes often styled in black and white, with graphic overlays of text often citing locations across the world. Rooted in ink wash and other dynamic techniques on canvas and paper, Baskerville is deeply inspired by the unseen lives and layered personas of those who dwell within the underground rhythms of city life—both literally and metaphorically.





Access.Legacy.Cultural infrastructure.Ella West Gallery is working to elevate art as both cultural capital and community...
06/01/2026

Access.
Legacy.
Cultural infrastructure.

Ella West Gallery is working to elevate art as both cultural capital and community bridge, helping organizations and individuals harness the power of art to tell stories, build culture, and strengthen community.



Art collecting does not begin with a title, a price point, or a perfectly curated wall. It begins with instinct.You have...
05/14/2026

Art collecting does not begin with a title, a price point, or a perfectly curated wall. It begins with instinct.

You have a perspective. You have a lived experience. You know what feels good to share your space with. And that is where collecting starts.

Whether it is your first original work, a piece that reminds you of home, or something you simply cannot stop thinking about, collecting is about building a relationship with the objects, stories, and artists that move you.

Every collection starts somewhere. Sometimes with one piece. Sometimes with the realization that what you choose to live with says something meaningful about who you are. At Ella West Gallery, we believe collecting is for anyone willing to trust their eye and honor what resonates.

Photo featuring artwork by Lamar Whidbee, placed by Ella West Gallery into the collection of Martina and Dwayne Ballen



As one of Cuba’s most renowned abstractionists, Rigoberto Mena (Artemisa, Cuba, 1961) utilizes color and gesture to give...
05/12/2026

As one of Cuba’s most renowned abstractionists, Rigoberto Mena (Artemisa, Cuba, 1961) utilizes color and gesture to give immense feeling in more abstract pieces calling to human emotion. Through the eyes of an abstract expressionist, he draws inspiration from his home’s urban landscapes and the spirit of Cuba and its people.

In 2011 Mena was selected to be part of the collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Cuba, after the success of solo exhibition Hablando en Lenguas; his artwork is also shown in the collection of the Museum of Latin American Art, in Los Angeles (MOLAA), USA, Consejo Nacional de las Artes Plasticas, in La Habana, Cuba, and Centro de Arte Contemporaneo Wifredo Lam, in La Habana, Cuba, and he has been widely shown across China, Germany, The Netherlands, Mexico, Spain, France, Holland and within the United States including Miami, Boston, Washington, D.C., and California.

Mena utilizes color and gesture to give immense feeling in more abstract pieces calling to human emotion. Mena brings influences from the urban architectural cityscapes of his native Cuba into his body of abstract work, working from the field of inner emotion over strict rationality. His abstract expressionism speaks in the language of expressive brushstrokes and textured canvases. 

Image 1 - Linda Shropshire and Rigoberto Mena
Image 2 - Rigoberto Mena, Untitled, 2026 (new work available for sale, inquire via DM)




05/08/2026

That small red dot carries a much bigger meaning than a sale.

In the life of an artwork, the red “sold” dot marks a moment of stewardship. It signals that a collector has chosen to live with a work, care for it, and become part of its story. For the artist, it represents validation and momentum. For Ella West Gallery, it reflects the trust required to place the right work with the right collector at the right moment.

A red dot is not the end of the journey. It is the beginning of a new chapter, one that connects artists, collectors, and institutions in the shared work of sustaining culture.
That is art stewardship in practice: not simply acquiring art, but helping build
the relationships and support systems that allow creative ecosystems to thrive.



Ella West is evolving into:✔️ Art Advisory✔️ Institutional Placement Strategy✔️ Private Collector Development✔️ Artist C...
05/05/2026

Ella West is evolving into:

✔️ Art Advisory
✔️ Institutional Placement Strategy
✔️ Private Collector Development
✔️ Artist Career Coaching

This is what expansion looks like.





Growth isn’t loud. It’s layered.Thank you to every artist, collector, and believer who has built this with us.
04/30/2026

Growth isn’t loud. It’s layered.

Thank you to every artist, collector, and believer who has built this with us.




A work placed. A collector moved. A gift made to a major institution.At Ella West Gallery, we believe collecting is not ...
04/28/2026

A work placed. A collector moved. A gift made to a major institution.

At Ella West Gallery, we believe collecting is not ownership. It is guardianship. When a collector chooses to gift a work into an institutional collection, they are not just donating art; they are preserving narrative.

Inspired by their visits to major exhibitions like “American Sublime” at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Dan Johnson and Lisa Pizzagalli shared images like these that informed our ongoing conversations and led to their recent gift of Steven M. Cozart’s “The Pencil Test: Elijah” to the North Carolina Museum of Art.

This is what art stewardship looks like. This is what we are building at Ella West.

More to come.

Photos:
1 and 2: Collectors Dan Johnson and Lisa Pizzagalli
3: “The Pencil Test: Elijah”



Through our focus on art advisory and artist development, we are excited to share the important acquisition of artist St...
02/18/2026

Through our focus on art advisory and artist development, we are excited to share the important acquisition of artist Steven M. Cozart’s “The Pencil Test: Elijah.” Stay tuned to learn how and when this portrait will be on view to the public as a powerful act of reclamation, amplifying the voices of those too often silenced, and honoring the nuances of Black lived experience. 

“The Pencil Test: Elijah” draws from a legacy where a simple pencil could separate lives, rewrite lineage, and redefine Blackness. Part of a series honoring and interrogating the history of The Pencil Test, this piece references a method once used to assess Afro-textured hair. In the test, a pencil is pushed through a person’s hair; how easily it passes through determines whether the individual “passes” or “fails.”

Originating as a tool of racial classification during apartheid in South Africa, the pencil test was used to distinguish between Whites, Coloreds, and Blacks, dividing families and communities. In the United States, the concept of the pencil test echoes within Black American communities, where hair texture has long been a point of tension, identity, and exclusion. Cozart highlights how Black hair, particularly in its natural state, can function as a ‘codec’, a quick signifier that shapes perception, belonging, and bias both within and beyond the Black community.

Address

104 W. Parrish Street
Durham, NC
27701

Opening Hours

Wednesday 12pm - 5pm
Thursday 12pm - 5pm
Friday 12pm - 5pm
Saturday 12pm - 5pm

Telephone

+19194859602

Website

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