London has so many galleries that it is really hard to choose which ones to go to in a limited time frame, but as soon as I saw that  Ellen Gallagher was having an exhibition at Hauser & Wirth, I knew that this had to be on my 'must see' list. I've always been attracted to Gallagher's work because I love her diversity of subject matter from hair products that were advertised to Afro-American women in the 1960's, to abstract watercolour and paper cuts of sea plants and creatures. She inadvertently took a marine biology course as part of a science major and discovered how much she liked drawing the specimens and that lead her to becoming an artist. I have a similar history in that it was through the study of biology that I realized how much I loved drawing. The exhibition did not disappoint. Gallagher's work continues to enthral and surprise.

The other thing that is of interest about Gallagher's work is her use of 'found surfaces', whether it be magazine pages or lined pages (perhaps from a penmanship workbook) as in the image above. In this image, the objects floating on the surface are made from very small fragments of papers and boards. Gallagher talks about this process in a short Art 21 Exclusive clip. In the talk done on the occasion of this current exhibition at Hauser Wirth, Eleanor Gallagher in Conversation with Naomi Wallace, Gallagher goes into much more detail about her background and her art.

The visceral quality of Gallagher's surfaces does not come across in reproductions, so it was intriguing to see how the catalogue for her recent work, Don't Axe Me, is punctuated throughout with cut-outs as if to make up for the materiality that is lost through the printed image. The cut-outs don't necessarily relate to how the finished work looks, but they do make you think of the three-dimensional quality of her work that is not apparent in the printed image. The catalogue itself is a masterwork in printing.

On the occasion of her exhibition at the Haus der Kunst in Munich, Gallagher gave a very informative interview about her work and process. More of Gallagher speaking about her work can be found in the video from conference called Travelling Lines: Drawing as Itinerant Practice. 

The image below represents more of her earlier work where she uses magazine pages as a surface and builds upon them with a limited palette. These works almost completely transcend their original source when you see them in person. I was so taken by the surface quality (they are mounted on board so have substantial presence), that only after viewing the exhibition a second time, did I realize that these have been painted on a Cutty Sark Scotch ad. I very much appreciate how Gallagher is always exploring new ideas and territories, while always maintaing a close tie to her own personal experience and a strong connection to the world around us.