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Raymond Elman (born June 20, 1945) is an American artist, publisher, editor, and writer. Until 1989, he made only abstract art, which was exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide, and which was included in the US Art in Embassies program [7 ], founded by Jane Thompson [7, ] widow of ambassador Llewellyn Thompson. From 1989 to the present, he has made 400+ large-scale (i.e., 60 x 40 inches), mixed-media portraits primarily of people in the arts [1 ]. Four of his portraits are in the collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and have been exhibited there [8 ]. Elman maintained a home in the Provincetown area on the northern tip of Cape Cod from 1970 to 2012, before moving to Miami year-round in 2012. In 1985, he co-founded Provincetown Arts (9) (10) magazine with Christopher Busa. As of 2023, the magazine is still being published. In 2014, he founded the Inspicio arts digital publication platform, which changed its name to ArtSpeak (6) in May 2023. ArtSpeak is sponsored by the Lee Caplin School of Journalism & Media in The College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts at Florida International University in Miami. [6 ]

Early Life and Education

Elman was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he graduated from Woodward High School (1963). His father, Isadore Charles Elman (1894-1976), was born in Rovno, Ukraine where he experienced pogroms against Jews, the Russian Revolution, and World War I. He emigrated to the United States in 1921, but his entire immediate family perished in the Holocaust. As a new immigrant, who could not speak English, Elman’s first job was sweeping floors in a “variety store” in Norton, Virginia. He eventually owned the store. He then joined family in Cincinnati, where he founded the I.C. Elman Co., a wholesale toy distribution company, which became one of the largest such companies in the nation, its primary customer being Federated Department Stores. Elman’s mother, Ethel Evans Elman (1908-1978), was born in San Antonio, Texas and grew up in Louisville, Kentucky.

Elman earned two degrees, a BS (1967) and an MBA (1968) from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. While attending UPenn, Elman took all of the studio art courses he could schedule. After graduating from UPenn, Elman moved to the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City, where he took studio arts courses at New York University (NYU) and met his mentor Knox Martin (1923-2022). Martin motivated Elman to “give up his day job” and move to the Provincetown Art Colony.

Art Career

From 1970 to 1989, Elman made only abstract. Four suites of abstract prints were printed by Izmo Productions in New York City. Two suites were published by HMK Fine Arts. Elman made many large-scale abstract paintings using mixed-media on canvas.

Selected Solo Exhibitions


 * 1971:  Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown
 * 1972:  Provincetown Group Gallery
 * 1973:  Provincetown Group Gallery
 * 1974:  Left Bank Gallery, Wellfleet
 * 1975:  University of Pennsylvania
 * 1975:  Arwin Gallery, Detroit
 * 1976:  Provincetown Art Association & Museum
 * 1977:  Miller Gallery, Cincinnati
 * 1978:  University of Pennsylvania
 * 1978 – 1985:  Provincetown Group Gallery
 * 1981:  Dyansen Gallery, New York
 * 1985:  Newton Arts Center
 * 1989:  Swansborough Gallery, Wellfleet
 * 2011:  Truro Public Library
 * 2011:  COA Gallery
 * 2012:  Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill
 * 2013:  Williams-McCall Gallery, Miami Beach
 * 2016:  The Betsy Hotel, Miami Beach
 * 2016:  Provincetown Art Association & Museum
 * 2022:  Historic Hampton House, Miami (5)
 * 2023-24:  The Jewish Museum of Florida (2)

Selected Curated and Juried Group Exhibitions


 * 1971-present:  Provincetown Art Association & Museum
 * 1979-1981:  Aaron Berman Gallery, New York
 * 1981:  Berkshire Museum, Ken Tyler juror
 * 1983:  Berkshire Museum, Patterson Sims juror
 * 1983:  Zaner Gallery, Rochester
 * 1983:  University of Massachusetts, Best of Show Award, Nancy Hoffman & Vivian Raynor jurors
 * 2007:  Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, “New Acquisitions”
 * 2011:  Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, “New Acquisitions”
 * 2013:  Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, ”Poetic Likeness: Modern American Poets”
 * 2015:  Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, “Contemporary Americans: 1990 - Present”

Selected Public & Corporate Collections


 * The Historic Hampton House (5)
 * Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery (8)
 * Museum of African American History
 * Decordova Museum
 * Cincinnati Art Museum
 * University of Pennsylvania
 * Provincetown Art Association & Museum
 * Babson College
 * US Embassy, Madrid
 * US Embassy, Berlin
 * US Embassy, New Delhi
 * US Embassy, Brazilia
 * US Embassy, Tel Aviv
 * US Embassy, Brussels
 * US Embassy, Lisbon
 * Fidelity Mutual Fund Group
 * Procter & Gamble
 * New England Life Insurance
 * PricewaterhouseCoopers
 * Alexander Grant
 * Gradison & Co

Selected Articles & Books


 * Boston Globe
 * Cincinnati Enquirer
 * Provincetown Advocate (9)
 * Cape Cod Times
 * Art New England
 * Provincetown Arts (9)
 * Contemporary Cape Cod Artists: Images of Land and Sea by Deborah Forman
 * Biscayne Times
 * Art Burst Miami (3)
 * Aventura magazine
 * Miami Herald (4)
 * South Florida Sun Sentinel
 * Orlando Sun Sentinel

Museum of African American History

Decordova Museum

Cincinnati Art Museum

Provincetown Art Association & Museum

University of Pennsylvania

Babson College

US Embassy, Berlin

US Embassy, New Delhi

US Embassy, Brazilia

US Embassy, Tel Aviv

US Embassy, Brussels

US Embassy, Lisbon

US Embassy, Madrid

Fidelity Mutual Fund Group

Procter & Gamble

New England Life Insurance

PricewaterhouseCoopers

Alexander Grant

Gradison & CO

Awards

2018:  Receive first annual Ellies Award from OoliteArts (formerly the ArtCenter / South Florida)

Personal Life

Elman married Lee Vilinsky in 1984. A marketing executive, Lee Elman later was elected president of Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill. Their son, Evan Dana Charles Elman, born December 9, 1989, in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Truro on Cape Cod and in Cambridge, MA. He graduated from the Cambridge Friends school, Cambridge Rindge & Latin, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, where he and his family still reside. Their granddaughter, Chloé Renée Elman, was born in August 2018.


 * 1) Website for Raymond Elman Portraits:  http://www.raymondelman.com/
 * 2) Website for Jewish Museum of Florida:  https://jmof.fiu.edu/exhibitions-events/exhibitions/raymond-elman-the-portraits/index.html
 * 3) Website for ArtBurst:  https://www.artburstmiami.com/visual_arts/raymond-elmans-portraits-tell-stories-at-the-jewish-museum
 * 4) Website for Miami Herald:  https://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/visual-arts/article282920078.html?taid=65775783b74c740001be10aa&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
 * 5) Website for Historic Hampton House Museum:  https://www.historichamptonhouse.org/
 * 6) Website for ArtSpeak:  https://artspeak.fiu.edu/ 
 * 7) Website for Art in Embassies US Department of State:  https://art.state.gov/
 * 8) Website for Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery:  https://npg.si.edu/home/national-portrait-gallery
 * 9) Website for Provincetown Arts magazine:  https://provincetownarts.org/
 * 10) Provincetown Arts Provincetown Arts