Ellen Gallagher
installation view of "eXelento" show at Gagosian Gallery, 2004
Ellen Gallagher was born in 1965 in Providence, RI. Her inclusion in the Whitney Biennial of 1995 was most likely the pivotal point in her career. Her work deals with issues of race and the role of race in our society. She typically works with images from African American pop culture such as old advertisements from magazines such as Ebony & Black Star. She takes these images (which have become practically as stereotypical as Little Black Sambo- offering products such as wigs, hair straighteners, and skin lighteners) and multiplies them to the point where they become abstracted. In other work, like the ones pictured above, Gallagher defaces the images using many diverse materials and often collages other cut-out images onto the paper. In the installation view above Gallagher creates an 8 x 11 ' canvas with the advertisements and then covers them with yellow plasticine. Many of her previous works involved much more minimalist abstract imagery, often involving grid patterns and other trademarks of minimalism, but upon close inspection reveal images of minstrel figures, "thick grinning lips, whites of eyes, and pickaninny heads" (from the Gagosian Gallery press release for her 1998
New Paintings show).
visit these sites for more information:
http://www.artnet.com/ag/fineartthumbnails.asp?aid=6679
http://www.drawingcenter.org/gallagher.htm
http://www.gagosian.com/artists/ellengallagher/
by Vanessa Bolt
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