Robert Wallace Ellis ONZM (2 April 1929 – 23 November 2021) was a British-New Zealand painter and artist known for paintings that tackle social, cultural, and environmental themes.
[1] In the 2001 New Year Honours, Ellis was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to fine arts.
His subjects range over tensions between transport and urbanism, contrast ecology with spirituality and look at the on-going nature of Māori–Pākehā relations.
"[6] His work was the focus of a major book published by Ron Sang in 2015, entitled Robert Ellis [see review below].
They include not only paintings and works on paper, but also stained glass (design of the east wall of the nave in Holy Trinity Cathedral, Parnell), tapestry (the largest in the world at the time, and now in the Aotea Centre, Auckland), and medallions.