Ellen Gallagher
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Ellen Gallagher (born December 16, 1965) is an American artist. Her work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions and is held in the permanent collections of many major museums. Her media include painting, works on paper, film and video. Some of her pieces refer to issues of race, and may combine formality with racial stereotypes and depict "ordering principles" society imposes.


Background and education

Gallagher was born on December 16, 1965, in
Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...
. Referred to as African American, she is of
biracial Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...
ethnicity; her father's heritage was from
Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...
, in
Western Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurita ...
(but he was born in the United States), and her mother's background was Caucasian
Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the Briti ...
. Gallagher's mother was a working-class Irish-American and her father was a professional boxer. In Rhode Island, Gallagher attended Moses Brown, an elite, Quaker college preparatory school. At sixteen, Gallagher entered her first year at
Oberlin College Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest coeducational liberal arts college in the United States and the second oldest continuously operating coeducational institute of highe ...
in Ohio (1982–1984) and studied writing. Gallagher did not finish her education at Oberlin College and ended up joining a carpenters' union in Seattle. Before her art career, Gallagher worked as a commercial fisherman in Alaska and Maine. In 1989 she attended Studio 70 in
Fort Thomas, Kentucky Fort Thomas is a home rule-class city in Campbell County, Kentucky, United States, on the southern bank of the Ohio River and the site of an 1890 US Army post. The population was 16,325 at the 2010 census, making it the largest city in Campb ...
, before earning a degree in fine arts from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
in 1992. Her art education further continued in 1993 at the
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture is an artists residency located in Madison, Maine, just outside of Skowhegan. Every year, the program accepts online applications from emerging artists from November through January, and selects 6 ...
in
Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and nor ...
.


Career

Gallagher gained recognition as an artist in 1995. Prior to her Gagosian showing, Gallagher had solo shows at Mary Boone in Soho, New York, and Anthony D'Offay in London. As her first solo show in New York, Gallagher chose Mary Boone's space because of its neutrality, in which she stated, "because there the abstract qualities of my work stand out first".


Work

Gallagher is an abstract painter and multimedia artist creating minimalist work with subject narratives. Gallagher's influences include the paintings of
Agnes Martin Agnes Bernice Martin (March 22, 1912 – December 16, 2004), was an American abstract painter. Her work has been defined as an "essay in discretion on inward-ness and silence". Although she is often considered or referred to as a minimalist, Mart ...
and the repetitive writings of
Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...
. Some of Gallagher's work involves repetitively modifying advertising found in African American focused publications such as ''
Ebony Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus '' Diospyros'', which also contains the persimmons. Unlike most woods, ebony is dense enough to sink in water. It is finely textured and has a mirror finish when ...
'', '' Sepia'', and ''Our World'', including images from
Valmor Products Valmor Products was a Chicago-based cosmetics and personal care company founded in 1926, targeted at African American consumers. The company was known for its distinctive artwork used in its advertisements. History Valmor was founded in 1926 as Va ...
ads, as in her ''DeLuxe'' series. Her most famous pieces are her grid-like collages of magazines grouped together into larger pieces. Examples of these are ''eXelento'' (2004), ''Afrylic'' (2004), and ''DeLuxe'' (2005). The series DeLuxe showed multiple creative methods, from photogravure to digital printing. Gallagher used oils to combine different sheets together and add texture. Gallagher pushed the limit between two and three dimensions in her series. She used new technologies to create plates in many layers. Each of these works contains as many as or more than 60 prints employing techniques of photogravure, spit-bite,
collage Collage (, from the french: coller, "to glue" or "to stick together";) is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an Assemblage (art), assemblage of different forms, thus creat ...
, cutting, scratching,
silkscreen Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mes ...
, offset lithography and hand-building. Gallagher also glues notebook paper drawings onto her canvas to create textured surfaces. In her artwork, she combines different traits of three art movements. Two of them mentioned by her are
Abstract expressionism Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...
and
Minimalism In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Do ...
., but by observing her use of specific materials like magazines, newspapers, etc. The use of patterns and repetition series as well as the many printing techniques she uses can relate to her work with Pop-art. With stylized allusions to cartoons and childhood toys or via transformed and manipulated advertisements Gallagher's work “seduces the viewer into visceral engagement with images about which we have learned to feel numb. Even though Gallagher does not describe her artwork as any of these art styles individually, not only her but other art-related individuals and regular audiences describe Gallagher's work as singular and interesting. Very contrasting styles combined to give life to meticulously unique Pop-abstract-minimalist artworks Some of Gallagher's early influences while attending the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston were the Darkroom Collective, a group of poets living and working out of
Inman Square Inman Square is a neighborhood and historic district in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It lies north of Central Square, at the junction of Cambridge, Hampshire, and Inman Streets near the Cambridge– Somerville border. Location Like many square ...
in
Cambridge, MA Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
and would go on to become the art coordinator of the collective. The Darkroom collective allowed Gallagher to explore her talent and apply her culture as an African-American woman to her work. One of her first exhibits took place at the Dark Room in 1989. Some other influences at the Museum School were Susan Denker, Ann Hamilton,
Kiki Smith Kiki Smith (born January 18, 1954) is a West German-born American artist whose work has addressed the themes of sex, birth and regeneration. Her figurative work of the late 1980s and early 1990s confronted subjects such as AIDS and gender, whil ...
and
Laylah Ali Laylah Ali (born 1968Baker, Alex (2007) ''Laylah Ali: Typology''. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. p. 47. ) is a contemporary visual artist known for paintings in which ambiguous race relations are depicted with a graphic clarity and carto ...
. Themes related to race are often evident in Gallagher's work, sometimes using
pictographs A pictogram, also called a pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto, and in computer usage an icon, is a graphic symbol that conveys its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Pictographs are often used in writing and g ...
, symbols, codes and repetitions. "
Sambo , aka = Sombo (in English-speaking countries) , focus = Hybrid , country = Soviet Union , pioneers = Viktor Spiridonov, Vasili Oshchepkov, Anatoly Kharlampiev , famous_pract = List of Practitioners , olymp ...
lips" and "bug eyes," references to the Black
minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer ...
shows, are often scattered throughout Gallagher's works. Additionally, Gallagher would use these symbols in her collage pieces, inspired by lined yellow paper schoolchildren use. Certain characters are also used repeatedly, such as the image of the nurse or the "Pegleg" character that sometimes populate her page's
iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...
. Gallagher made Wiglette from Deluxe 2004 to 2005, which contains a collection of vintage beauty ads from the 1930s to 70s intended for black American women. Through this art piece Ellen Gallagher is once again exploring the intersection of identity, race and culture. When asked about Wiglette in an interview Gallagher said, “The wig ladies are fugitives. Conscripts from another time and place, liberated from the 'race' magazines of the past. But I transformed them-here on the pages that once held them captive.” Some of her pieces may explicitly reference the issue of race while also having a more subtle undercurrent related to race. She was inspired by the New Negro movement as well as modernist abstraction. Gallagher also uses found historical images in her work. She combines formality (grid lines, ruled paper) with the racial stereotypes to depict the "ordering principles" society imposes.
"Blackface minstrel is a ghost story, " Gallagher has noted. "It's about loss; there's a black mask and sublimation... ackface minstrel was the first great American abstraction, even before jazz. It's the literal recording of the African body into American public culture. Disembodied eyes and lips float, hostage, in the electric black of the minstrel stage, distorting the African body into American blackface."
As well as using racially charged imagery, Gallagher is known to portray bodies and include elements of poetry and pop culture in her work. She uses golden tones to portray the racial binary in society. Her media includes paintings, works on paper, film and video. She has made innovative use of materials, such as creating a unique variation on scrimshaw by carving images into the surface of thick sheets of
watercolor paper Watercolor paper or watercolour paper is paper or substrate onto which an artist applies watercolor paints, pigments or dyes. "The term “colour” is inappropriately given by common usage to material substances which convey a sense of colour t ...
and drawing with ink, watercolor and pencil. Her extensive ongoing series begun in 2001 and titled, ''Watery Ecstatic'', consists of paintings, sculptural objects, and animations to depict sea life through
Afrofuturist Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic, and philosophy of science and history that explores the intersection of the African diaspora culture with science and technology. It addresses themes and concerns of the African diaspora through technocultur ...
aesthetics. Gallagher creates different sea creatures to symbolize slave ancestors who died during the transatlantic slave trade across the Atlantic Ocean. These works depict sea creatures, of the mythical undersea world of Drexciya, which were the progeny of slaves who had drowned. This mythology had been conceived by a musical duo of that name, from Detroit. Gallagher commented upon the process of creating these pieces: "The way that these drawings are made is my version of scrimshaw, the carving into bone that sailors did when they were out whaling. I imagine them in this overwhelming, scary expanse of sea where this kind of cutting would give a focus, a sense of being in control of something." Some of Gallagher's work would also consist of codes made from cut out letters. In some of her early pieces, she painted and drew on sheets of
penmanship Penmanship is the technique of writing with the hand using a writing instrument. Today, this is most commonly done with a pen, or pencil, but throughout history has included many different implements. The various generic and formal hist ...
paper (ruled paper used for handwriting practice) she had pasted onto canvas. Her choice of penmanship paper is significant, in an interview with Jessica Morgan, she says "the sense of a neutral surface that can accommodate any mark seems an ideal way of communicating freedom," which is described by her as "idiosyncratic" and "inscrutable". As her previous work has been critiqued for being too racially charged, her newer work contains less explicit racial images to challenge viewers. In 1995, Gallagher's work was exhibited at the
Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition ...
and the
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
in 2003. Artist
Chuck Close Charles Thomas Close (July 5, 1940 – August 19, 2021) was an American painter, visual artist, and photographer who made massive-scale photorealist and abstract portraits of himself and others. Close also created photo portraits using a very l ...
created a 2009 tapestry portrait of Gallagher. Gallagher is represented by
Gagosian Gallery Gagosian is a contemporary art gallery owned and directed by Larry Gagosian. The gallery exhibits some of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. There are 16 gallery spaces: five in New York City; three in London; two in P ...
(New York) and Hauser & Wirth (London). She is based in the United States (New York City) and the Netherlands (
Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte (river), Rotte'') is the second largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the Prov ...
).


Awards and fellowships

Among the honors that Gallagher has earned are: *Ann Gund Scholarship, Skowhegan School of Art, Skowhegan, ME (1993) *Traveling Scholar Award, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (1993) *Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center Fellow (1995) *
MacDowell Colony MacDowell is an artist's residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire, United States, founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. Prior to July 2020, it was known as the MacDowel ...
, New Hampshire (1996) * Joan Mitchell Fellowship (1997) *American Academy Award in Art (2000) *Medal of Honor, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2001)


Selected exhibitions

Ellen Gallagher's work has been featured in solo exhibitions at numerous galleries and institutions including: *
Drawing Center The Drawing Center is a Manhattan, New York, museum and a nonprofit exhibition space that focuses on the exhibition of drawings, both historical and contemporary. History The Drawing Center was founded by former assistant curator of drawings at ...
, New York City, ''Preserve'' (2001) * Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston USA, "Watery Ecstatic" (2001) * Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA, ''Preserve/Murmur'' (2004) * Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Florida, USA, ''Ellen Gallagher: DeLuXe'' (2005) * Freud Museum, London, UK, ''Ellen Gallagher: Ichthyosaurus'' (2005) *
Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...
, New York City, ''Ellen Gallagher: DeLuXe'' (2005) * Tate Liverpool, UK, ''Ellen Gallagher'' (2007) *
Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...
London, UK, ''AxMe'' (2013) *Sara Hilden's Museum, Finland (2013) * Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2014) *
Gagosian Gallery Gagosian is a contemporary art gallery owned and directed by Larry Gagosian. The gallery exhibits some of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. There are 16 gallery spaces: five in New York City; three in London; two in P ...
, New York Group exhibitions have included: *
Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also the Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse'') of the Commonwea ...
, ''Word and Image'' (1992)
Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
'Faces'' (1992) *Akin Gallery, Boston, ''Autopia'' (1992) *
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
, ''Traveling Scholars' Exhibit'' (1993)
Artist's Space, New York
''Artists Select'' (1993) *Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston, ''Airborne/Earthbound'' (1994) * Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, ''In Context'' (1994) *
Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition ...
, New York City (1995) * Forum for Contemporary Art, St. Louis, ''Altered States'' (1995) *
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
, ''Degrees of Abstraction'' (1995) * Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts
Whitechapel Art Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the ...
, London, ''Inside the Visible'' (1996) *
Irish Museum of Modern Art The Irish Museum of Modern Art ( ga, Áras Nua-Ealaíne na hÉireann) also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. Located in Kilmainham, Dublin, the Museum pr ...
, Dublin, Ireland, ''Projects'' (1997) *
Randolph Street Gallery Randolph Street Gallery (RSG) was an alternative exhibition space in Chicago, Illinois, from 1979 until its closing in 1998 and a vital local force in the development of a variety of new art forms and the contemporary national and international arts ...
, Chicago, ''T-Race'' (1997)
Basilico Fine Arts and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York
Project Painting (1997) * Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, ''The Body of Painting'' (1997) * De Beyerd Center for Contemporary Art, Breda, The Netherlands,''Postcards from Black America'' (1998) *
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...
, New York, ''Piecing Together the Puzzle: Recent Acquisitions'' (1998) *
Museo de la Ciudad de México The Museum of Mexico City (Museo de la Ciudad de Mexico) is located at Pino Suarez 30, a few blocks south of the Zocalo, on what was the Iztapalapa Causeway, near where Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma II met for the first time. This building used to ...
, Mexico City, Mexico, ''Cinco continentes y una ciudad'' (1998) *
Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art (often referred to as the Blanton or the BMA) at the University of Texas at Austin is one of the largest university art museums in the U.S. with 189,340 square feet devoted to temporary exhibitions, permanent col ...
, Austin, Texas, USA, ''Negotiating Small Truths'' (1999) * Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, ''Collectors Collect Contemporary: 1990–1999'' (1999) *
École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French '' grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Scien ...
, Paris, ''(Corps) Social'' (1999) *
Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art (often referred to as the Blanton or the BMA) at the University of Texas at Austin is one of the largest university art museums in the U.S. with 189,340 square feet devoted to temporary exhibitions, permanent col ...
, University of Texas, Austin, TX, ''Negotiating Small Truths'' (1999) *
P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center MoMA PS1 is a contemporary art institution located in Court Square in the Long Island City neighborhood in the borough of Queens, New York City. In addition to its exhibitions, the institution organizes the Sunday Sessions performance series, the ...
, Long Island City, NY, USA, ''Greater New York: New Art in New York Now'' (2000) *
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...
, New York City,' 'New Acquisitions'' (2000)
The Kerlin Gallery
Dublin, ''KIN'' (2000)
The Contemporary
Baltimore, ''Making Sense: Ellen Gallagher, Christian Marclay, Liliana Porter'' (2000)
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
''Strength and Diversity: A Celebration of African American Artists'' (2000)
The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts
''Visual Memoirs: Selected Paintings and Drawings'' (2000) *
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
, Italy, ''50th International Art Exhibition'' (2003) *
Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, to ...
, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, ''Heart of Darkness'' (2006) *
Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...
, London, UK, ''Passages from London'' (2007) *
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is part of the National Galleries of Scotland, which are based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The National Gallery of Modern Art houses the collection of modern and contemporary art dating from about 1900 to th ...
, Edinburgh, ''Artist Rooms'' (2009) *
Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition ...
, New York City (2010) *
Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
, Paris, France, ''elles@centrepompidou'' (2010) *
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...
, Arnhem, the Netherlands, ''Six Yards Guaranteed Dutch Design'' (2011) *
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
, USA ''Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art'' (2011) *
Museum of Modern Art, New York The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one o ...
, USA, ''Print/Out'' (2011) *
Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, to ...
, Minneapolis, Minnesota, ''Don't Let This Be Easy'' (2020-2021) *
Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the R ...
, London, ''In the Black Fantastic'' (2022)


Publications

''Murmur. Orbus'' in collaboration with Edgar Cleijne. Hauser & Wirth London/Fruitmarket Gallery Edinburgh (ed.) 2005. English, 5 books holding together with magnet, 990 pages. With "Blizzard of White" (2003, 55 min loop, 16 mm).


Collections

Gallagher's work is held in many permanent collections including the
Addison Gallery of American Art The Addison Gallery of American Art is an academic museum dedicated to collecting American art, organized as a department of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. History Directors of the gallery include Bartlett H. Hayes, Jr. (1940– ...
, Goetz Collection, Hamburger Bahnhof,
Studio Museum in Harlem The Studio Museum in Harlem is an American art museum devoted to the work of artists of African descent. The museum's galleries are currently closed in preparation for a building project that will replace the current building, located at 144 ...
,
Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, to ...
,
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...
, Moderna Museet, Sammlung Goetz and the
Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
. Specific works include: * '' Doll's Eyes'', 1992, Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA * '' Afro Mountain'', 1994,
Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...
, New York, NY * '' Tally'', 1994,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
, MA * '' Untitled'', 1995, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA * '' Delirious Hem'',
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, New York, NY * '' Host'', 1996, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA * ''
Paper Cup A paper cup is a disposable cup made out of paper and often lined or coated with plastic or wax to prevent liquid from leaking out or soaking through the paper. It may be made of recycled paper and is widely used around the world. History P ...
'', 1996,
Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...
, London * '' Teeth Tracks'', 1996,
The Broad The Broad () is a contemporary art museum on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles. The museum is named for philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad, who financed the $140 million building that houses the Broad art collections. It offers free gener ...
, Los Angeles, CA * '' Untitled'', 1996, The Broad, Los Angeles, CA * ''Untitled'', 1997,
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's ...
, CA * '' Untitled'', 1998,
National Galleries of Scotland National Galleries of Scotland ( gd, Gailearaidhean Nàiseanta na h-Alba) is the executive non-departmental public body that controls the three national galleries of Scotland and two partner galleries, forming one of the National Collections ...
* '' Untitled'', 1999,
Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...
, Chicago, IL * ''Blubber'', 2000,
Princeton University Art Museum The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is the Princeton University gallery of art, located in Princeton, New Jersey. With a collecting history that began in 1755, the museum was formally established in 1882, and now houses over 113,000 works ...
, Princeton NJ * '' They Could Still Serve'', 2001,
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...
, New York, NY * ''Bouffant Pride'', 2003,
Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...
, Cleveland, OH * '' Water Ecstatic'', 2003, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO * ''Duke'', 2004,
Fogg Museum The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...
, Cambridge, MA * ''DeLuxe'', 2004–2005, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA * '' Bird in Hand'', 2006, Tate Modern, London, England


Further reading

*Butler, Cornelia, ''Modern Women: Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art'', The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2010. *Barson, Tanya, Gorschlüter, Peter (eds), ''Afro Modern: Journeys Through the Black Atlantic'', London: Tate Publishing, 2010. *Ellen Gallagher. ''Coral Cities'', London: Tate Publishing, 2007. *Gallagher, Ellen, Cleijne, Edgar, Murmur. ''Water Ecstatic, Kabuki, Blizzard of White, Super Boo, Monster, in: Heart of Darkness'', New York, NY: Walker Art Centre, 2006. pp. 81–104, ill. *Riemschneider, Burkhard & Uta Grosenick. ''Art Now''. Cologne:
Taschen Taschen is a luxury art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. As of January 2017, Taschen is co-managed by Benedikt and his eldest daughter, Marlene Taschen. History The company began as Taschen Comics, ...
, 2002. * De Zegher, Catherine, Jeff Fleming & Robin D.G. Kelley. ''Preserve''. New York: D.A.P., 2002. *Grosenick, Uta. ''Women Artists''. Cologne: Taschen, 2001. pp. 144–149. *Coleman, Beth. ''Ellen Gallagher: Blubber''. New York: Gagosian Gallery, 2001. *Kertess, Klaus, John Ashbery, Gerald M. Edelman et al. ''1995 Biennial Exhibition''. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art / Harry N. Abrams, 1995. *Suzanne P. Hudson. "1000 Words: Ellen Gallagher". ''ArtForum'', vol.42, no.8, April 2004, pp. 128–31. *Chan, Suzanna. "Astonishing Marine Living: Ellen Gallagher's ''Ichthyosaurus'' at the Freud Museum," in G. Pollock (ed.), ''Visual Politics of Psychoanalysis'', London: I.B.Tauris, 2013. *Tate, Greg; Robert Storr; Jill Medvedow. ''Ellen Gallagher'', Institute of Contemporary Art in association with D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. 2001.


References


External links

*"Gauging the Power of the Print" a
''The New York Times''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gallagher, Ellen 1965 births Living people American contemporary painters African-American contemporary artists American contemporary artists African-American painters American women painters Painters from Rhode Island Artists from Providence, Rhode Island 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American artists 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American artists Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture alumni