This monograph spans two decades of the internationally acclaimed American artist Ellen Gallagher's career, including paintings, works on paper as well as three film installations created in collaboration with Dutch artist Edgar Cleijne.
An immersive itinerary that recalibrates the tensions between fiction and reality, the book explores issues of race, identity, and transformation, with reference to historical and contemporary themes that include Modernist abstraction, marine biology, and Black popular culture. It includes an essay by author Philip Hoare alongside newly commissioned contributions from marine biologist Helen Scales, and cultural theorist Manthia Diawara with art historian Terri Geis.
Published on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition at the Centro Botín, Santander, Spain, in 2022.
Merging the opposite ends of traditional and digital imaging, Edgar Cleijne (born 1963 in Eindhoven, Netherlands) looks at the effects of our Anthropocene in the crossing points of nature, culture and commons. This position is reflected in the filmic installations by creating an interweaving of space, image and sound.
Ellen Gallagher (born 1965 in Providence, Rhode Island, USA) is an American artist known for her political works that challenge the stereotypes experienced by
African-Americans. Issues of racial identity, class and gender are central to her work, which includes paintings, drawings, collages and films. Gallagher's work is included in many major international museum collections including MoMA, New York; Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago; MCA Chicago; MOCA, Los Angeles; Philadelphia Museum of Art, New York; Whitney Museum of Art, New York; and Tate, London.
