ELLEN GALLAGHER (Born: December 16, 1965)

Gallagher was born on December 16, 1965 in Providence, Rhode Island. Referred to as African American,^[3] she is of biracial ethnicity; her father's heritage was from Cape Verde, in Western Africa (but he was born in the United States), and her mother's background was Caucasian Irish Catholic.^[4]

Gallagher studied writing at Oberlin College in Ohio^[4] (1982–84). Then she attended Studio 70 in Fort Thomas, Kentucky in 1989^[5] before earning a degree in fine arts from theSchool of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1992.^[4] Her art education further continued in 1993 at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine.

Ellen Gallagher. DeLuxe. 2004–05. Portfolio of 60 photogravure, etching, aquatint, and drypoints with lithography, screenprint, embossing, tattoo-machine engraving, laser cutting, and chine collé; and additions of plasticine, paper collage, enamel, varnish, gouache, pencil, oil, polymer, watercolor, pomade, velvet, glitter, crystals, foil paper, gold leaf, toy eyeballs, and imitation ice cubes, overall: 84 x 167" (213.4 x 424.2 cm); each: 13 x 10 1/2" (33 x 26.7 cm). Acquired through the generosity of The Friends of Education of The Museum of Modern Art and The Speyer Family Foundation, Inc. with additional support from the General Print Fund. © 2016 Ellen Gallagher and Two Palms Press

Biting, humorous, and poignant, Ellen Gallagher’s DeLuxe is a deft commentary on race, racism, and identity, especially African and African American identity. To make this work, the artist drew from her collection of vintage magazines geared towards black audiences, including Sepia, Our World, and Ebony. She isolated 60 pages from these publications, focusing largely on advertisements for cosmetic products ranging from wigs to acne treatments to skin-bleaching creams. Using historical and contemporary printmaking techniques and a riot of materials—like velvet, toy ice cubes, and googly eyes—she altered the pages, emphasizing the messages of beauty, success, and self-worth they convey. She then individually framed the pages and arranged them into a grid, brimming with materials and detailed imagery. Gallagher has described this piece as being “about identity in the most open sense of that word. No matter how uniform or how altered, it just refuses to be stamped out.”

Gallagher juega a transformar imágenes extraídas de ámbitos distintos como la literatura, la música, la ciencia ficción, la publicidad y la historia natural, como en el caso de la serie  wig-map grid collages, doppia Naturale, POMPA-Bang, yeXelento, donde la artista se adueña de la publicidad de productos de belleza de las revistas Ebony, Our World y Black Stars, todas publicidades que han favorecido una belleza negra a través del uso de pelucas y arreglos varios que la artistas ha recontextualizado creando collage con elementos afros y plastilina.
Gallagher comenta a propósito de esta serie: 'Las señoras con peluca son fugitivas, conscriptas con peluca provenientes de otra época, liberadas de las revistas "racistas" del pasado. Una vez más, las he transformado, aquí, sobre las mismas páginas que una vez las tenían prisioneras".