Sheila Gallagher

Sheila Gallagher’s wide use of various media approaches the examination of perception and representation from multiple angles, with each project eliciting a different insight into how art functions and is made. Based in Boston, near MIT and Boston University, Gallagher is situated in a unique milieu of arts and science. Using finicky media such as smoke, flowers, video, or melted plastic, Gallagher has taken up Pointillism’s mantel and creates her artworks largely by the accretion of discrete gestures. Her 2006-2007 multimedia work Cumulonimbus uses cut flowers mounted in a shadow box with an in-built irrigation system made to maintain their fresh, bright colors. Using hundreds of flowers and dozens of species, Gallagher depicts a voluptuous cloud floating in a pastoral landscape, conflating the representation of nature in art and at the flower market. Gallagher has shown at the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, and has been awarded numerous grants and fellowships.