David Ellis is an artist born into a family immersed in music. His paintings are often recorded in a form of digital time-lapse animation he calls motion painting. Like jazz, these works provide Ellis with an opportunity to combine ideas with collaborators and work solo within a form that promotes improvisation and spontaneity.

Ellis often stages events when exhibiting his motion paintings, inviting musicians, performers, and sound artists to interpret the work live. His motion painting, Paint on Trucks in a World in Need of Love was exhibited at MoMA. Ellis further explores sound with kinetic installations that produce analogue sequences in rhythm. His latest work, often in collaboration with composer Roberto Lange, deconstructs the inner workings of player pianos to create sprawling sculptures that automatically play percussive rhythms with recycled typewriters, buckets, bottles and cans.

Recent projects have been exhibited at The Huntington Museum of Art, ICA Philadelphia, Rice University Gallery, and PS1/MoMA.