Ethan Sales is a Jewish artist and graduate of Bucknell University with a B.A. in Studio Art. His work draws from personal experiences with mental health while also engaging in themes of American politics, social justice, fictional universes, addiction, and the tobacco industry. Alongside this conceptual work, Sales maintains a practice of geometric abstraction on paper and canvas, using formal exercises in line, pattern, and structure to develop both technical precision and independent bodies of work.
Using printmaking techniques and applying them to various other mediums, Sales is able to use printing as a foundation for exploring other practices. This approach creates a cohesive body of work that is texturally differentiated through the wide range of applied materials exhibited. His practice is driven by experimentation and by an interest in how ideas migrate between disciplines, allowing one project to evolve naturally into another.
Sales cites the relentless material experimentation of Matthew Barney, the immersive world-building of Bethesda Softworks games and Dungeons & Dragons, and the psychologically charged imagery of Philip Guston and Francis Bacon as among the most important influences on his art. This includes the Jewish experience reflected in Guston’s work, as well as his late imagery of cigarettes, which resonates with Sales’ own engagement with tobacco-related themes.
He also references the textural and assemblage-based practices of Mike Kelley, Betye Saar, and David Hammons, alongside the narrative confrontations with history and power found in the work of Kara Walker as major inspirations on his approach to art-making.
Since graduating in January 2022, Sales has lived in northeastern Massachusetts, where he assists printmakers Don Gorvett and Robert E. Townsend in producing intaglio and relief editions. He has also worked at the Hershey Frame Shop, one of Cape Ann’s premier fine art framing businesses. In parallel with his studio practice, Sales has developed skills in Unity Engine and Adobe Creative Suite while contributing assets and animation work to an independent video game project created by fellow Bucknell alumnus Eli Mauskopf.
Most recently, Sales has worked as a special education teacher while actively exploring intersections between fiber arts and printmaking in his personal practice, and continues to assist Don Gorvett with teaching relief printing workshops. He values collaboration across disciplines and seeks opportunities to work with other artists, makers, and creative communities whenever possible.