Ellen Gallagher

Ellen Gallagher, an American contemporary artist, explores the evolution of African American stereotypes in her artwork. Drawing inspiration from postwar-era beauty advertisements aimed at African-American women, she integrates them into her collages, paintings, and films. Despite appearing minimalist initially, her work delves into complex inquiries regarding social class, gender, and racial identity.

Biography of Ellen Gallagher

Ellen Gallagher, born in Providence, US, attended a top preparatory school and later the Quaker College. She also spent a year at Oberlin College in Ohio studying writing before dropping out. Gallagher then worked briefly as a fisherman in Alaska and with the carpenters' union in Seattle. In 1992, she graduated from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and continued her studies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine.

In 1995, Gallagher gained recognition as an artist following a solo exhibition at Mary Boone in New York. She deliberately chose this venue for its neutral setting, allowing her work to stand out. 

In 2000, Gallagher received the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Art. In 2005, she drew inspiration from advertisements for skin-whitening and hair-straightening products found in magazines like Sepia and Ebony, leading to the creation of her "DeLuxe" series. 

Throughout her illustrious career, Ellen Gallagher has displayed her work in various venues, including the Freud Museum in London, Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, Drawing Center in New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami. Her pieces are featured in several international collections, such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Tate, London; MOCA, Los Angeles; MoMA, New York; Whitney Museum of Art, New York; and Centre Pompidou, Paris. 

The artist currently resides and works between New York and Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Ellen Gallagher's Art Style

Gallagher's art is particularly influenced by 19th-century American musical theater, a time marked by blackface minstrelsy, where white performers darkened their faces with makeup instead of employing black actors. She creates subjective narratives in her artworks, taking inspiration from Gertrude Stein's writings and paintings of Agnes Martin. Through a variety of techniques like puncturing, staining, and smudging, her artwork undergoes a transformation into illegibility, yet retains a captivating composition of delicate textures.

For her series "Watery Ecstatic," Gallagher envisioned an underwater realm called Drexciya, inhabited by slaves who were casualties of the transatlantic trade. Employing a variation of the scrimshaw technique, Gallagher carves images onto watercolor paper, depicting the vibrant world of the Black Atlantis. Frequently, the artist manipulates magazine images by stripping away text, cutting them apart, and applying them to canvas.