Ellen Lesperance is an American artist and archivist, known for her gouache paintings that pattern the hand-knit garments of female activists engaged in Direct Action protests. She is a 2022-2023 Fulbright Global Scholar examining the protest knitwear practices of 1980s-era peace, anti-nuclear and feminist separatist encampments in the UK, Australia and Italy. Her paintings and textiles are included in multiple museum collections including: the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Brooklyn Museum; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Ludwig Museum, Cologne.
At MacDowell in 2010, Lesperance completed an essay The Fine Art of Protest: The Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp, 1981-2000 for PAJ Journal as well as two paintings in her ongoing series of activist-worn sweaters. During her 2023 Fellowship, she worked on paintings and knit sculptures for her upcoming solo show at Hollybush Gardens, London in May of 2024.
