Ellen Gallagher

Ellen Gallagher has emerged as one of the most acclaimed young artists in the United States over the past decade, and this book will be the first to present a significant body of recent work in one volume. Gallagher inflects the surface of her layered drawings and paintings with unique irony and wit. They refer obliquely to a history of African American stereotypes through minute interventions on the canvas: tongues, eyes, wigs, and lips appear like individual musical notes. Their lack of fully formed bodies underlines the manner in which these stereotypical images were used: appearing as disembodied parts in advertisements, toys, and other products of the popular culture. It is through repetition of this limited vocabulary of signs that meanings are established and transformed in Gallagher's work. The large-scale paintings in the exhibition and this accompanying book explore her personal iconography of forms. Included will be Gallagher's recent all-black paintings as well as a carefully selected group of drawings from the artist's own collection. In addition, it features an extensive interview with the artist, for which she has executed several drawings specifically to illustrate this section, as well as critical essays on the work.