Joey Foster Ellis (born August 27, 1984) is a functional artist and craftsman and a native of Auburn, New York who received his BFA from Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in 2009, becoming its first American graduate.
Ellis is a recipient of the 2010 TEDGlobal Fellowship[1] and was selected by The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum as one of 40 Under 40, a major exhibition highlighting the work of forty artists born since 1972.
His first project, "Hourglass", was presented to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during her visit to Beijing as a symbolic message pertaining to the limitations of time regarding the global climate crisis.
[3] The installation consisted of 100 life-sized ice sculptures of children left to melt in the hot Beijing sun to symbolize the effects of global climate change.
The campaign focuses on how the Asian population can help create hope and influence coral preservation efforts in a positive way using three methods.