Till Death Do Us Part

Poison and daggers aren’t usually associated with weddings, but Matt Sesow and Dana Ellyn aren’t ordinary people. 

The well-known D.C. artists will be tying the knot during the opening of their show “Till Death Do Us Part” at Long View Gallery on Friday, Feb. 5. The public is invited to view the ceremony (no gifts needed) and their subversive marriage-themed art.

“We’re not going to have kids. We’re not going to move to the suburbs, but there’s a celebration of marriage too,” Sesow says about the show. “We’re going to stay in D.C. and we love it here.”

Sesow is a self-taught artist whose paintings feature grotesque figures with bulging eyes and jagged teeth in a style reminiscent of Basquiat and Francis Bacon. When he was 8 years old, his left arm was severed by an airplane propeller in a freak accident at a rural airstrip near his childhood home in Lincoln, Neb. His work has been an outlet for the anger and grief he felt over losing his arm, but his paintings also convey his sly sense of humor.

Sesow sells his work through his website and at gallery shows around the world. He will be showing several large canvases at the wedding show along with 100 small paintings for $100 each.

Ellyn, who has a fine arts degree from George Washington University, creates richly detailed paintings that comment on political, social, and religious themes. Some of her work that challenges common religious beliefs were displayed last year for an atheist event called International Blasphemy Day, which prompted national media coverage and hate mail.

Both artists have created paintings called “Till Death Do Us Part” for the wedding show that comment on the love-hate nature of marriage. Ellyn’s painting features the smiling couple sharing a champagne toast while Sesow hides a butcher knife behind his back and Ellyn conceals a bottle of poison. Sesow’s painting pictures a dagger-wielding couple separated by a red Valentine-like heart.

“We’re never actually in any danger of killing each other but I think most couples have that moment of ‘Oh my god…,’” Ellyn says. “But I don’t think there’s a single day that goes by that we don’t look at each other and say we are so lucky.”

Sesow and Ellyn have been a couple since 2001 but neither was ready to rush into marriage because both had unsatisfying first marriages that ended in divorce.

“He really really fought against the idea of me,” Ellyn says about the early stages of their relationship. “I was too nice and normal and I was going to ruin his art. He thought he needed that edge and I wasn’t going to provide that. He’s learned I’m not all nice and normal.”

Till Death Do Us Part

Opening and Wedding for Matt Sesow and Dana Ellyn

Friday, Feb. 5 from 6:30-9:30 pm at Long View Gallery

1234 9^th Street NW, Washington DC 20001