Ellen Gallagher Exhibition @ Houser and Wirth

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by Bryony Harrison (subscribe)

Freelance writer and poet from London; if you would like to read my poetry, please check out my book, 'Poems on the Page', available from goo.gl/Ta4oAX.

Event: 14/03/2014 - 03/05/2014

Abstract Seas and Swirling Birds

'Ark' by Ellen Gallagher, 2014

African-American artist, Ellen Gallagher, is presenting her new collection of work at the Hauser & Wirth Gallery on Saville Row until the 3rd May. Influenced by the paintings of of Agnes Martin and repetitive writing style of Gertrude Stein, she works in a myriad of different mediums, including painting, collage, and film.

Gallagher's collages are often made up of adverts, which are repeated several times over, but presented in different ways. For example, her famous DeLuxe (2005) is made up of sixty prints, and employs numerous techniques. Reminiscent of that work is her new Ark collage, which is a double-sided gouache made up of layered magazine pages, which have been glued together very densely.

Her film work looks ethereal and otherworldly, with a dark, mysterious thread running through. Nothing is named after the title of Sun Ra's 1970 album and poem 'Nothing Is …', and focusses on the line 'The nothing and the air and the fire are really the same.'

Also rather morbid in tone is Gallagher's bird series. Racketeer's red distorted images create an ominous depiction of birds feeding.