Fast-Fish And Loose-Fish

Ellen Gallagher: Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish is an exhibition at Gagosian Ponthieu, Paris, featuring a series of three large-scale paintings created between 2023 and 2026. These works are built on sheets of ruled, gridded paper stained pink, layered with thick, colorful pigment, and incised palladium leaf. Gallagher employs a sculptural approach, working paintings from multiple positions.

The paintings explode compositional grids into vibrant lines and biomorphic shapes, merging Post-Minimalist abstraction with imagined ocean floor topographies and phantasmal worlds. Gallagher's fascination with the ocean is evident, referencing her 2010 film installation Osedax, which explores themes of the deep sea and marine life.