Learn about the work and career of artist Ellen Gallagher. Artworks, biography, exhibitions, news, museum exhibitions, press, and more.
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From The Broad Collection: Ellen Gallagher, Watery Ecstatic Series, 2004, 12 drawings: watercolor, ink, oil, pencil and cut paper, The Broad Art Foundation. Since 2001 Ellen Gallagher has continued to add to her Watery Ecstatic series, which consists of assorted drawings of marine life, some scientific and others imaginary. The series recalls the myth of Drexciya, created by the electronic band of the same name. In the story, an aquatic world is populated by the children of West African women who were pregnant when cast overboard during the transatlantic slave trade. Gallagher relates her labor-intensive cut-paper process to scrimshaw (the illustrative carvings made on whalebones, ivory, and other materials). The bright white paper, sometimes tinted with watercolor, ink, or oil, emulates the mammal bones used for such carvings, while the forms depicted conjure a world deep beneath the sea’s surface. Through Gallagher’s persistent markings, botanical and biological marine life suggests a utopian realm, adjacent to a horrific one, that speaks to opportunities and a way of life allowed only in fantasy.
Portraits and abstract images encompass the bulk of her work — showcasing a variety of ideas and inclinations. Irish and African-American styles mix seamlessly into her art; an amalgamation of two…
photo courtesy photo courtesy When I was in New York last year I saw my first Ellen Gallagher images and was blown away. Needles...
Ellen Gallagher — AxMEEXHIBITION 28.02 – 13.07.14Ellen Gallagher (born 1965) brings together imagery from myth, nature, art and social history to create comp...
Ellen Gallagher. Bouffant Pride. 2003. Photogravure with die-cuts, collage, paint, modelling clay, and toy eye additions. sheet: 13 1/2 x 10 1/2" (34.3 x 26.6 cm); overall: 13 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 3/16" (34.3 x 26.6 x 0.4 cm). Edition Schellmann, Munich and New York. Two Palms Press, New York. Linda Barth Goldstein Fund. 342.2003. © 2025 Ellen Gallagher. Drawings & Prints
Ellen Gallagher
Ellen Gallagher at the Saint Louis Art Museum - Announcements - e-flux
Ellen Gallagher. They Could Still Serve. 2001. Dye, rubber cement, acrylic gel, oil paint, and pencil on paper mounted on canvas. 10 x 8' (304.8 x 243.8 cm). Emily and Jerry Spiegel and Anna Marie and Robert F. Shapiro Funds and gift of Agnes Gund. 1173.2001. © 2025 Ellen Gallagher. Painting & Sculpture
Artist Quote of the Week - Ellen Gallagher
Paper Cup is part of Gallagher’s first mature body of work which explored layered and contradictory themes. Gallagher has created a loosely structured grid by lining up small pieces of writing paper in multiple rows, recalling the history of handwriting exercises. Closer inspection reveals each line to be carefully constructed from rows of bulbous shapes resembling the vowels a child must repeat when learning to write, though they are in fact a reference to the stereotypical lips of American blackface minstrels. From a distance this large work’s subtle geometry resembles an American minimalist painting, but closer inspection reveals not only a darker side of American history but references Gallagher’s own mixed-race origins.
Ellen Gallagher's 2013 retrospective at the Tate Modern in London gives a glimpse into how the artist uses an attractive aesthetic to explore diverse...
Artist Ellen Gallagher discusses the characters she employs in her work, such as Pegleg and Eunice Rivers. She also talks about how she moved from painting and collage to film.
The Drawing Center
Ellen Gallagher in conversation with Adrienne Edwards.
acclaimed artist Ellen Gallagher's AxME retrospective examines race and colour...
Artist Ellen Gallagher discusses her process and how she came to use collaged paper in her paintings.
actors: aidan gallagher and ellen pageTHIS EDIT IS NOT MINE ALL CREDITS GOES TO THE OWNER#tuaedits #aidaneellenedits
