1965 Born in Providence, RI.
Lives and Works In New York, NY & Rotterdam, Netherlands.
EDUCATION
1993 Skowhegan School of Art, Skowhegan, ME
1992 School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
1989 Studio 70, Ft. Thomas, KY
1986-1987 S.E.A. (Sea Education Association), Woods Hole, MA
1982-1984 Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022 Ellen Gallagher with Edgar Cleijne. Centro Botín Centre, Santander, Spain; travels
to Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid, Spain.
2021 Ellen Gallagher: Ecstatic Draught of Fishes. Hauser & Wirth, London, England.
2019 Ellen Gallagher, Gagosian, Paris, France
Ellen Gallagher with Edgar Cleijne: liquid intelligence, WIELS, Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels
2018 Ellen Gallagher in Artist Rooms, Tate modern, London, England
Are We Obsidian?, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Ellen Gallagher: Nu-Nile, The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada
Ellen Gallagher: Better Dimension, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
Ellen Gallagher: Nu-Nile Capri, Düsseldorf, Germany
2017 Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles CA
2014 New Work, Hauser & Wirth, London, England
13-14 AxME, Tate Modern, London, UK. Traveled to: Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland;
Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
2013 Ice or Salt, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA
Ellen Gallagher: Don’t Axe Me, New Museum, New York NY
2011 Ellen Gallagher: Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY
2009 An Experiment of Unusual Opportunity, South London Gallery, London, UK
2007 Ellen Gallagher: Coral Cities, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK. Travelled to: Hugh Lane Gallery,
Dublin, Ireland
2006 Salt Eaters, Hauser & Wirth London, Piccadilly, London, UK
DeLuxe, Hauser & Wirth Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
2005 Ellen Gallagher: Ichthyosaurus, Freud Museum (in collaboration with Hauser & Wirth London),
(inc. films with Edgar Cleijne), London, UK
Ellen Gallagher: Murmur and DeLuxe, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL
Ellen Gallagher: DeLuxe, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
2004 Orbus, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, Austria
Ellen Gallagher – eXelento, Gagosian Gallery (Chelsea), New York, NY
Preserve/Murmur (with Edgar Cleijne), Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA
2003 Murmur, Galerie Max Hetzler, (with Edgar Cleijne), Berlin, Germany
POMP-BANG, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
2002 Ellen Gallagher: Preserve, The Drawing Center, New York, NY
Watery Ecstatic, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
2001 Blubber, Gagosian Gallery (Chelsea), New York, NY
Watery Ecstatic, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
Preserve, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA. Traveled to : Yerba Buena Center for the Arts,
San Francisco, CA
2000 Ellen Gallagher: Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London, UK
1999 Ellen Gallagher: Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston, MA
Murmur-Drawings from the series Watery Ecstatic; Murmur-Animation: Galerie Max Hetzler,
Berlin, Germany
1998 Ellen Gallagher: Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY
Ellen Gallagher: IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK
1996 Ellen Gallagher: Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London, UK
Ellen Gallagher: Mary Boone Gallery, New York, NY
1994 Ellen Gallagher: Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston, MA
1992 Akin Gallery, New York, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 Daydreams and Nightmares. Gagosian, online. Invisible Sun. The Broad, Los Angeles, CA.
Mirrors and Windows. Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf, Germany.
On Paper: Natasja Kensmil, Ellen Gallagher, Kara Walker, Marlene Dumas. Andriesse Eyck Gallery,
Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Icons. Villa Empain, Brussels, Belgium.
sonsbeek20→24: Force Times Distance – On Labour and its Sonic Ecologies. Arnhem, Netherlands.
New Time. Art and Feminisms in the 21st Century. University of California, Berkeley Art
Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA.
Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America. New Museum, New York, NY.
2020 1 Million Roses for Angela Davis. Kunsthalle im Lipsiusblau, Dresden, Germany.
Mariner: A painted ship upon a painted ocean. Edge Andrew Brownsword Gallery, University of Bath,
Bath, England.
UNTITLED 2020. Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy.
Other.Worldly. Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, Netherlands.
Dhaka Art Summit 2020: Seismic Movements. Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition. Phillips Collection,
Washington, D.C.
La rivoluzione siamo noi. Collezionismo italiano contemporaneo. XNL Piacenza Contemporanea,
Piacenza, Italy.
2019 Black Models: From Géricault To Matisse, Musée D’orsay, Paris, France Francis Bacon/Ellen Gallagher,
Hatton Gallery, Newcastle, England
2018 Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet to Matisse and Beyond, Columbia University Wallach Art
Gallery, New York NY
2017 Material Desires, Whitechapel Gallery, London UK
Prospet.4 New Orleans, Contemporary Arts Centre, New Orleans LA
A Global Table, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem Netherlands
I am you, you are too, The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis MN
The Tale, Torquay Museum, Torquay UK
20/20: The Studio Museum in Harlem and Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh PA
Drawing. The Beginning of Everything, Albright Knox Museum, Buffalo NY
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy London, London UK
Diaspora Platform, Palazzo Pisani a Santa Maria, Venice Italy
The Absent Museum, Wiels, Brussels Belgium
Power, Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles CA
The beguiling Siren is Thy Crest, Museum of Modern Art Warsaw, Warsaw Poland
La vie aquatique, Mra0Musée regional d’art contemporain, Sérignan France
2016 Creature, The Broad, Los Angeles, CA
First Light: The Barbara Lee Collection of Art by Women, The Institute of
Contemporary Art/Boston, Boston, MA
Her Crowd: New Art by Women from Our Neighbors’ Private Collections, Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT
The Color Line: African-American Artists and Civil Rights, Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France
Blackness in Abstraction, Pace Gallery, New York, NY
Future Perfect: Picturing the Anthropocene, University Art Museum, University at Albany, Albany, NY
MashUp: The Birth of Modern Culture, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada.
Black Pulp!, 32 Edgewood Avenue Gallery, Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT
Racial Violence and Resilience, Ackland Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Audacious: Contemporary Artists Speak Out, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
2015 Random Sampling – Painting from the Goetz Collection, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
SALTWATER: A Theory of Thought Forms, 14th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey
Das Als-ob-Prinzip (The as-if-principle), Magazin4 — Bregenzer Kunstverein, Bregenz, Austria
The Bottom Line, Stedelijk Museum Voor Actuele Kunst (SMAK), Gent, Belgium
All the World’s Futures, 56th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Speaking Back, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Cape Whale: A New Look Through Art, Science and Culture, SEASpace Gallery, Provincetown, MA
Collection Intervention: Ellen Gallagher’s DeLuxe, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy,
Andover, MA
This Is No Less Curious: Journeys Through the Collection, Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University,
Ithaca, NY
FOUND, The New Art Gallery Walsall, Walsall, England
How to Construct a Time Machine, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, England
Come as You Are: Art of the 1990s, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
Collecting and Sharing: Trevor Fairborther, John T. Kirk and the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of
Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
2014 Civil Rights, Void, Derry, Ireland
Speaking of People, Studio Museum Harlem, New York, NY
Under Pressure, Contemporary Prints from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation,
Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA
Shaping a Collection, Five Decades of Gifts, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
2013 FLAG’s 5th Anniversary Group Exhibition, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY
The Shadows Took Shape, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
In the Cut, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Southbank, Australia
Coral: Something Rich and Strange, Manchester Museum, Manchester, England
2012 Elles: Women Artists from the Centre Pompidou, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA (Traveling Exhibition)
Archetypes and Historicity: Painting and Other Radical Forms 1995 – 2007 by Mario Diacono,
Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy
Under Pressure. Contemporary Prints from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family
Foundation, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE
Medals of Dishonour, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersbourg, Russia (Traveling Exhibition)
Manifesto Collage about Change, Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie
und Architektur, Berlin, Germany
Ashes and Gold. A World’s Journey, MARTa Herford, Herford, Germany
Ashes and Gold. A World’s Journey, Museum Schloss Moyland, Bedburg-Hau, Germany
La Triennale, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Print / Out, MoMA Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Six Yards. Guaranteed Dutch Design, Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem, Netherlands
2011 After Hours: Murals on the Bowery, Art Production Fund in collaboration with the New Museum, New York, NY
Wunder, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany
Underwater, Tullie House, Carlisle, UK
Stargazers: Elizabeth Catlett in Conversation with 21 Contemporary Artists, Bronx Museum, New York NY
AD LIB, Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA
2010 Underwater, The Bluecoat, Liverpool, UK
On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century, MoMA, New York, NY
Underwater, The Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, UK
elles@centrepompidou, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic, Centro Galego de arte Contemporanea, Santiago de
Compostela, Spain
Underwater, Spacex, Exeter, UK
Brune/Blonde. Une exposition Arts et Cinéma, La Cinémathèque française, Paris, France
Afro Modern: Journey through the Black Atlantic, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
Disquieted: Contemporary Voices from out of the Shadows, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Les Mutantes / I Mutanti, Villa Medici, Rome, Italy
Collecting Biennials, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Underwater, Towner, Eastbourne, UK
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Contemporary Art from the Collection, MoMA Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Take me to your leader! The Great Escape into Space, The National Museum of Art,
Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway
2009 Constellations: Paintings from the MCA Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
A Few Frames: Photography and the Contact Sheet, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
elles@centrepompidou, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Moby-Dick, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA
Paper: Pressed, Stained, Slashed, Folded, MoMA Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Artist Rooms, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland
Medals of Dishonour, The British Museum, London, UK
Der Schmerz sitzt tief / The pain runs deep, Stiftung Opelvillen, Russelsheim, Germany
2008 For what you are about to receive, Gagosian Gallery / Red October Chocolate Factory, Moscow, Russia
Paper Trail II: Passing Through Clouds, Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA
Eclipse. Art in a Dark Age, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Carte Blanche III: “Gedichte der Fakten” – Arbeiten aus der Sammlung Arend und Brigitte
Oetker, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig/DE
2007 Multiplex: Directions in Art, 1970 to Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Passages from History, Tate Modern, London, UK
Very Abstract and Hyper Figurative, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, UK
Collections Display, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Comic Abstraction, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
2006 The Secret Theory of Drawing, The Drawing Room, London, UK. Travelled to: The Model Arts
Gallery & Niland Gallery, Sligo, Ireland
Limits, Andrew Mummery Gallery, London, UK
Black Alphabet – ConTEXTS of Contemporary African-American Art, Zacheta Narodowa
Galeria Sztuki, Warsaw, Poland
Heart of Darkness, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Naturalia, Unosunove Art Contemporanea, Rome, Italy
Alien Nation, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK. Travelled to: Manchester City Art Gallery,
Manchester, UK; Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts, Norwich, UK
Art Basel 37, Basel, Switzerland
Contemporary Art Museum, Contemporary Masterworks: St. Louis Collects, St. Louis, MO
Skin is a Language, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Black Panther Rank and File, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Having New Eyes, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO
The Fluidity of Time. Selections from the MCA Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art
Chicago, Chicago, IL
Selections from the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies. Columbia University, Marianne
Boesky Gallery, New York, NY
Infinite Painting. Contemporary Painting and Global Realism, Villa Manin Centre for Contemporary
Art, Codroipo (Udine), Italy
Selections. Leroy Neiman Center, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY
See into liquid, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO
2005 Works on Paper, Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Classified Materials. Accumulations, Archives, Artists, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
Figures of thinking. Convergences in Contemporary Cultures, Richard E. Peeler Art Center,
DePauw University, Greencastle, IN
Works on Paper, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, Germany
90-Day Loans. From The Broad Art Foundation and the Ovitz Family Collection,Arizona State
University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ
Looking at Words, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY
2004 Non Taccare la Donna Bianca, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy
Animals, Haunch of Venison, London, UK
Disparities and Deformations: Our Grotesque, Site Santa Fe’s Fifth International Biennial,
(cur. Robert Storr), Santa Fe NM
Here is elsewhere, Museum of Modern Art, Queens, (cur. Monta Hatoum), New York, NY
Silvia Bächli, Ellen Gallagher, Jana Sterbak, Barbara Gross Galerie, Munich, Germany
The Came Show, James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY
Keys to the Koop. Humor and Satire in Contemporary Printmaking, Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID
2003 Stranger in the Village, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Black Belt, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
La Biennale die Venezia (cur. Francesco Bonami), Venice, Italy
Copy it, steal it, share it, Borusan Culture and Art Center, Istanbul, Turkey
2002 Cartoon Noir: Contemporary Investigations, Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at
Austin, Austin, TX
Painting in Boston. 1950-2000, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
Accrochage II. Paintings, Van de Weghe Fine Art, New York, NY
2001 From Rembrandt to Rauschenberg, Building the Collection, Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, University
of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
The Mystery of Painting, Sammlung Goetz, Munich, Germany
The Americans, Barbican Centre, London, UK
2000 American Academy Invitational Exhibition of Painting & Sculpture, American Academy of Arts and Letters,
New York, NY
Greater New York: New Art in New York Now, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in collaboration with MOMA,
New York, NY
KIN, The Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
Making Sense: Ellen Gallagher, Christian Marclay, Liliana Porter, The Contemporary, Baltimore MD
New Acquisitions, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
American Artists, Carpenter Center for Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Visual Memoirs: Selected Paintings and Drawings, The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
1999 Collectors Collect Contemporary: 1990-1999, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
(Corps) Social, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France
Negotiating Small Truths, Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY
1998 Cinco continentes y una ciudad, Museo de la Ciudad de México, Mexico City, Mexico
Piecing Together the Puzzle. Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Postcards from Black America, De Beyerd Center for Contemporary Art, Breda, NL
1997 The Body of Painting, Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston, MA
Project Painting, Basilico Fine Arts and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, NY
Projects, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
T-Race, Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago, IL
1996 Art at the End of the 20th Century. Selections from the Whitney Museum of American Art,
National Gallery, Alexandros Soutzos Museum, Athens. Travelled to: Museu d’Art
Contemporani, Barcelona, Spain; Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany; Castello
di Rivoli, Turin, Italy.
Inside the Visible, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA. Travelled to: Whitechapel Art Gallery,
London, UK
1995 Altered States, Forum for Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO
Degrees of Abstraction, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MD
1995 Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
1994 Mario Diacono Gallery, ‘Airborne/Earthbound’, Boston
In Context, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
1993 African American Perspectives, Rose Art Museum/Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Artists Select, Artists Place, New York, NY
Traveling Scholars’ Exhibit, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
1992 Autopia, Akin Gallery, Boston, MA
Faces, Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
Salon, Akin Gallery, Boston, MA
Symphony of Prosperity, Akin Gallery, Boston, MA
Word and Image, Boston Public Library, Boston, MA
AWARDS AND GRANTS
2001 Medal of Honor, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
2000 American Academy Award in Art
1997 Joan Mitchell Fellowship, New York, NY
1996 MacDowell Colony, NH
1995 Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship, Provincetown, MA
1993 Traveling Scholars’ Award, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Ann Gund Scholarship, Skowhegan School of Art, Skowhegan, ME
LITERATURE
2001 Ellen Gallagher, Gagosian Gallery. New York, NY
2000 Ellen Gallagher: Pickling, Max Hetzler. Berlin, Germany.
1998 Ellen Gallagher: New Paintings, Gagosian Gallery. New York, NY
1998 Ellen Gallagher, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK
1997 The Astonishing Nose, Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London, UK
1995 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, NY
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Bowes Foundation, San Francisco, CA
Broad Family Foundation, Los Angeles, CA
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany
Irish Museum of Modern Art - IMMA, Dublin, Ireland
Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX
Joslyn Museum of Art, Omaha, NE
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, MI
Sammlung Goetz, Munich, Germany
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York, NY
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Tate, London, England
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Whitney Museum of American Art New York, NY