Ellen Gallagher

Ellen Gallagher created her first major portfolio of prints in collaboration with the Neiman Center in 2000. She used a variety of techniques including etching, drypoint, screenprint and offset lithography to develop her images which were then printed on different Japanese papers that she altered and manipulated by cutting and embossing. Using images that recall black minstrels and black hairstyles - popping eyes, bulging mouths and disembodied wigs - Gallagher employs visual fragments to address the stigmas of racial stereotypes. When asked about her experience at the Neiman Center, she wrote, "Working in such a porous way with my signs opened up possibilities in my painting practice.... This evolution was certainly opened up by the conversations I had on the plate."

Gallagher (b. 1965) studied at Oberlin College, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She was awarded the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in 2000. Gallagher’s work has been exhibited extensively in the United States and abroad including solo exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami; St. Louis Art Museum; Des Moines Art Center; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; ICA, Boston. Her work was included in the Whitney Biennial in 1995. She lives and works in New York and Rotterdam, Holland.

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