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Copyright Š 2017 by Karen Gutfreund Art All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
NASTY NASTY—an international exhibition, with a nod to President Elect Donald Trump’s misogynistic tenets, is an exhibition for and about those who challenge patriarchy and refuse to stay silent, creating a groundswell revolt with women artists who dare to speak up and speak out. In this turbulent time of political changes, women’s rights, social, racial, gender and economic inequality and reproductive choice/health care issues are all under attack. Rooted in a strong feminist foundation, the exhibition uses art to advocate for political, economic, and social equality for all addressing topics like violence against women, reproductive rights, identity and gender roles, beauty and sexuality, and empowerment, committing to a vision of equal rights, freedom, and opportunities with lives free from want, fear, and violence. The works of the 17 female artists seek to influence cultural attitudes and incite the viewer to question the social and political landscape, and through this questioning, affect the world and incite change toward equality.
This curated exhibition includes the work of the following artists: Emily Dvorin, Sally Edelstein, Alyssa Eustaquio, Karen Gutfreund, Yolanda Guerra, Judy Johnson-Williams, Beth Lakamp, Sarah Maple, Tanya Nolan, Priscilla Otani, Jessica Putnam-Phillips, Spooky Boobs Collective, Colette Standish, Morgan Ford Willingham and Meghan Willis. This Exhibition is hosted by Arc Gallery and Studios, San Francisco from March 11 – April 15, 2017. Karen Gutfreund Curator www.KarenGutfreund.com www.GutfreundCornettArt.com
About Arc Gallery & Studios Arc Studios & Gallery features ten artist studios, a 1,000 sq. ft. art gallery, two smaller galleries and an art education center, along with the Kearny Street Workshop office, the Studio Fine Artist Network office and VEGA Coffee kiosk. Arc is located at 1246 Folsom Street, between 8th and 9th streets in San Francisco's SOMA neighborhood. Arc supports the making of quality art in all media, provides a nurturing environment for artists to create their work, builds a community of artists to encourage exploration of art, provides resources for the professional development of visual artists, and promotes appreciation of the visual arts in the city of San Francisco. http://www.arc-sf.com
Emily Dvorin Sally Edelstein Alyssa Eustaquio Karen Gutfreund Yolanda Guerra Judy Johnson-Williams Beth Lakamp Sarah Maple Tanya Nolan Priscilla Otani Jessica Phillips Spooky Boobs Collective Colette Standish Morgan Ford Willingham Meghan Willis
EMILY DVORIN Sausalito, CA www.emilydvorin.com emily@emilydvorin.com
Emily is a self-taught, award-winning fiber artist. She grew up in New Jersey in the 50s, a child of an intellectual family. Her father was a psychiatrist, and her mother was a high school teacher. Growing up, she was told her creativity and artistic approach were “cute”. In college, in the 60s, Emily majored in foreign languages because that felt more appropriate to her parents than art did. She got married and went to graduate school for her Masters Degree in Teaching, and then taught third grade for four years until she left to start a family. Her husband’s job took her and her family to California in the 70s, where they settled in Marin County, outside of San Francisco. She partnered with a friend to open Various & Sundries, a contemporary crafts store in San Anselmo, California. In the early 80s, she took a basket workshop in the basement of the old Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, and her life was forever changed. She had done a lot of macramé before, but here she realized that basketry and three-dimensional work were what she truly loved. Emily had little formal art training, other than workshops here and there, including four years in a Fiber Sculpture studio class. Emily began offering workshops of her own in the 90s and in the early 2000s brought basketry classes to elementary and high school classrooms. In 2008, after owning and operating Various & Sundries for 35 years, and enabling other artists to gain wider audience and appreciation for their work, Emily retired to live her life’s dream of being a full-time artist. She now has a studio in Sausalito, California. She continues to teach classes for both adults and children, and she speaks, consults and exhibits all around the country Artist Statement: In this piece, I am commenting on the transparency of what we females do to keep our “acts” together. Using a coiled basketry technique with oxygen tubing, dental molds and monofilament, I am referencing self care issues, “behind the scenes” maintenance and feminine beauty. Perhaps a see-through vessel is who we really are.
You Could Always See Right Through Me Oxygen tubing, dental molds, cable ties, monofilament, 11 x 20 x 20 inches, 2016
SALLY EDELSTEIN New York, NY www.sallyedelsteincollage.com www.envisioningtheamericandream.com www.retroarama.com sallyedelstein@yahoo.com
Sally Edelstein is an award winning collage artist and writer whose work has focused on examining social fictions. Curating and deconstructing the cultural clutter of mid-century America, her social commentaries are served up with a twist of today as assumptions are wryly shaken and stirred. Exhibiting her work nationally, her work is also included, along with other 20th century artists, in “Conversations in American Literature, Language Rhetoric, Culture” an AP High School Literature Text Book published by Bedford/ St Martins. A multiple awards recipient from the Society of Three Dimensional Illustrators, The Art Directors Club of N.Y. and The Society of Illustrators, this New Yorker has served as a guest lecturer on post war American culture at Fordham University, The New School for Social Research and the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. Artist Statement: Using collage as a means of examining social fictions “Men in Charge” is composed of hundreds of images appropriated from vintage advertising, periodicals, newspapers, vintage school books, old illustrations, comic books, pulp fiction etc., dissociating them from their original use to better evaluate its original meaning. These media images are the sharpest illustrations not of reality but of domestic and national ideals reinforcing cultural, political, gender and racial stereotypes. This collage is part of a collection called “Media Made Women” which chronicles popular culture’s vision of women from the repressed but optimistic post war years of the Cold War, through the disillusioned but liberating years of Vietnam, Watergate, and the turmoil of the Women’s Movement, when debates about women’s proper place was the prevailing subtext of American mass media. The art work is a smorgasbord of mid century gender stereotypes that littered a pop culture landscape. The mandates that defined femininity for my mothers generation were still very much alive while I was growing up. Women (especially wives and mothers) were to defer to, anticipate, and meet the needs of others, to seek self definition through family, and perhaps above all to convert their own strivings (for love, career, sexual expression) into caring for and responding to others.
Men in Charge. Mixed media collage, 21 x 30 inches, 2016
ALYSSA EUSTAQUIO San Jose, CA www.alyssaeustaquio.com alyssaeustaquio@gmail.com
Alyssa Eustaquio is a Bay Area artist working in sculpture, installation, and performance. Eustaquio explores one's role within the previous waves of Feminism and how that informs contemporary Feminist Culture. Rather than the focus being the shift from past to present, her work embraces the complexity Feminism can embody. Eustaquio's multifaceted approach to Feminism allows for an all inclusive space for her audience to participate in Feminist Discourse. She received her MFA at San Jose State University in 2015 and has exhibited at the ICA San Jose, SOMArts and the de Young Museum in San Francisco, California.
Artist Statement: Keeping FEMINISM Fresh, simply, FEMINISM should not leave a bad taste in one's mouth, but for many it does. FEMINISM has become an uncomfortable word. Those identifying with the label are seen as aggressive, unattractive and anti-men. Placing the word on a stick of gum is my attempt to make the word palatable again.
Keeping FEMINISM Fresh Mint chewing gum, paper, plastic sleeve and Wrigley's foil chewing gum wrappers 3 x 2.5 x .5 inches, 2013
KAREN GUTFREUND Saratoga, CA www.KarenGutfreund.com www.GutfreundCornettArt.com karengutfreundart@gmail.com
Karen Gutfreund has lived in all four corners of the United States but has now settled in the Bay Area in California from New York City. She has worked in the Painting & Sculpture Department for MoMA, the Andre Emmerick Gallery, The Knoll Group, the John Berggruen Gallery and the Pacific Art League. She now resides in Saratoga, CA and is partner in Gutfreund Cornett Art, a curatorial partnership that specializes in creating exhibitions in venues around the United States on themes of “art as activism” to stimulate dialog, raise consciousness and encourage social change. The exhibitions focus on topics of identity, women’s rights, gender, democracy, social justice, immigration and the environment. To date, Karen has curated and directed over 25 national exhibitions. Actively involved on the board of various arts organizations, she is also a member of ArtTable and the No. California TFAP Representative (The Feminist Art Project). A curator of feminist exhibitions and the past National Exhibitions Director and Vice President for the Women’s Caucus for Art, Karen actively promotes the work of other artists as a curator, consultant and mentor. She is also creating her own work, focusing on art as activism to effect social change and has been in 100+ juried exhibitions around the country and is in numerous private and museum collections. She is also an art consultant – renting/sales of artwork to corporations and individuals. Artist Statement: PERPETUAL MOTION--appreciate assure bath beautify bed birth career carpool childcare cleaning comfort cook counsel diapers dishes encourage forgive groceries guide help house iron juggle laundry listen mop mother multi-task nurse nurture organize prioritize sacrifice satisfy seduce share shop support sympathize vacuum work. See the man sit on the couch, enjoying his scotch as you do yet one more thing, another task, keep moving keep fucking moving, collapse for the day, start all over again; aeonian ceaseless constant unending. This work address and examines the prescribed gender roles that still exist in 2017 with the female as the primary care-giver in addition their own career aspirations and full-time work.
Perpetual Motion. Mixed media, acrylic, paper, vinyl, resin on canvas, 24 x 36 each, diptych, 2016
YOLANDA GUERRA San Jose, CA www.YolandaGuerra.com yolandaguerra@yahoo.com
Yolanda Guerra, a San Jose, California native, received her BFA degree from San Jose State University. While she was formally trained in painting, she has been exploring mixed media, including textile with woodblock printing. The themes of her work have been related to Chicana/feminist art, current political issues, and an awareness of the value of corn. She is a 2016 recipient of a National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) grant to study in Oaxaca, Mexico, an event that has been the latest inspiration for her woodblock and protest prints Some of her best known pieces have been her 7ft round quilted flour tortilla, with a fabric print that she designed based on her mother’s homemade tortilla. She is also known for her embroidered miracle tortillas, depicting Latina women who have been a source of courage and inspiration for the artist. The Latina women represented are from various sectors in the global community, from visual artists, musicians, and writers. Other known pieces have been from her Vagina series, which speak about the joys of female sexuality and the empowerment of the feminine. Her most current work has been exploring injustices that have plagued communities of Latino and people of color in our nation that involve police brutality. She carves out these images and prints on fabric, which allows her to embroider color to enhance the image. Her work has been featured at the San Francisco Mueres 2016 show and will be featured again this year. In Los Angeles she exhibited her quilt of the 43 missing Mexican students, “Lagrimas” at Judy Baca’s SPARC gallery and has exhibited in the 2015 Manifest Justice show curated by Yosi Sergant and Task Force. Her work is in the art collection of the actor Jessie Williams. The artist resides in San Jose, California. Artist Statement: No Strings Attached is part of a vagina series that I am working on that represents the breadth and depth of female sexuality as it relates to my personal experiences. This piece reflects the beauty, intensity and pleasure of sexuality that has no attachments to social norms, social and religious constraints, or psychological gymnastics of worry, fear, guilt and the need to make an experience into more than it already is. It is an understanding of pleasure that is given and reciprocated without attachment. It is a piece of female power at the moment of sheer pleasure and joy.
No Strings Attached. Mixed media, 10 x 10x 3 inches, 2015
Yolanda Guerra. She Gave Life. Mixed media and hand embroidery, 12 x 16 x 3 inches, 2015
Yolanda Guerra. She Felt a bit Abstract. Mixed media and acrylic paint, 12 x 12 x 3 inches, 2016
Yolanda Guerra. She Felt She Deserved an Award Mixed media, wood and metal, 12 x 16 x 3 inches, 2014
Yolanda Guerra. She Voted for What was True. Her Vote Mattered Mixed media and acrylic paint, 12 x 12 x 6 inches, 2016
JUDY JOHNSON-WILLIAMS Oakland, CA www.judyjohnson-williams.com judy_j-w@ix.netcom.com
Judy Johnson-Williams is an artist exploring political art, mainly through line, sometimes in sculpture and mixed media. She says “It is the way art speaks to us and through us that fascinated me.” The artist had exhibited widely on the West Coast and is active in a number of art groups. These groups have provided additional opportunities to show, curate and collaborate, in addition to hosting workshops and gallery walks (including Art Murmur) which serve to educate the public about local art activities. Also, the artist runs a grant-supported art program in a public elementary school in West Oakland, as part of their curriculum. She is the director and developed the art activities. Now in it’s 11th year, it remains a program popular with teachers and students. It is this balance between the solipsism of art practice and reality of teaching young artists that the artist cherishes and that nourishes her art. The artist lives and works in West Oakland, CA. Artist Statement: Art and Marriage—Shoes are interesting as proxies for the person who wears them: they are very gendered and shape themselves to the feet of their owner. As such they are good stand-ins for examining women's relationship to the surrounding culture. In particular, marriage is a trap for women that we go into willing, happily even, and don’t discover for many years that it isn’t necessarily good for us.
Art and Marriage. Paper, glue, acrylic paint, x-acto knife (satin and cardboard for pedestal), 12 x 9 x 6 inches, 2016
BETH LAKAMP St. Louis, MO www.bettsvando.com bettsvando@yahoo.com
Beth Lakamp is an artist residing in St Louis County Missouri , USA. She creates figurative work in either oil or watercolor. Her unique style of expressionism is characterized by the use of heavy outlines, bright colors, and layering figures to create a cutout or puzzle effect. Subtle humor is sometimes used to contrast serious subjects. Beth's work exhibits nationally. Artist Statement: Mother Infinity Falls. Women working against women is potentially tragic. In this piece, the iconic female leader falls. Several background women celebrate the fall, a few are confused, and still others are resigned to the outcome. These women fail to understand what hurts one, hurts all. We need to unify around common goals and not sabotage the journey. "Mother Infinity Falls" depicts the lost opportunity of all women when we fail to unite.
Mother Infinity Falls. Oil on canvas, 42 x 42 inches, 2014
BETH LAKAMP
Pink Collar Workers. Oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches, 2015
SARAH MAPLE Crawley, UK www.sarahmaple.com info@sarahmaple.com Sarah Maple completed a BA in Fine Art from Kingston University in 2007 and in the same year won the “4 New Sensations” award for emerging artists, run by The Saatchi Gallery. Sarah’s artwork, film and performances have been exhibited internationally at galleries and institutions including Tate Britain, A.I.R Gallery (NYC), AGO (Canada), The New Art Exchange (Nottingham), Golden Thread Gallery (Belfast) and Kunisthoone (Estonia). Sarah's work has been the subject of documentaries including ARTE and VPRO. Sarah has worked collaboratively on film projects with Nick Knight and the Southbank Centre. In 2015 she released her first book “You Could Have Done This”, a hardback art book of selected works with contributions from Beverley Knowles (curator and writer), Margaret Harrison (artist), Oreet Ashery (artist) and Anne Swartz (professor Art History). Later in 2015, Sarah was awarded a Sky Academy Arts scholarship from Sky Arts which included funding, mentoring and a Sky Arts documentary. With the scholarship she will be creating a new body of work about “Freedom of Speech” for a solo exhibition in 2017. Maple lives and works in Sussex.
My Disney Princess series is looking at how gender stereotyping may affect how young boys and girls see themselves in the world and how this may influence them at this early stage in life. In this work I am empowering young girls by giving them another choice, to be the one in action taking on the world, instead of the one who needs to be rescued. Signs was made when I had my “feminist awakening” at art school. I suddenly realized one day in class that I would always be taken less seriously because of my gender. In my anger I produced this work which highly amused me and angered my classmates. However, the work had a great impact on my tutors and online and at this point I realized I can use my humour to make statements about gender politics. From this point this is what I have continued to pursue.
Signs. C-print, variable. 2007
Sarah Maple. Disney Princess Series: Judge Jasmine. Photography, variable, 2011
Sarah Maple. Disney Princess Series: Ariel Conducts A Business Meeting,. Photography, variable, 2011
Sarah Maple. Disney Princess Series: Belle The Football Manager. Photography, variable, 2011
Sarah Maple. Disney Princess Series: Cinderella Wins A Seat In Parliament. Photography, variable, 2011
Sarah Maple. Disney Princess Series: Sleeping Beauty Performs An Operation. Photography, variable, 2011
Sarah Maple. Disney Princess Series: Snow White the Scientist. Photography, variable, 2011
TANYA NOLAN Los Angeles, CA www.tmnfineart.com tanya@tmnfineart.com
Tanya Nolan (b. Anaheim, California, USA) received her BS from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and began her career in the financial world before turning to the arts full time. Her multi-disciplinary approach makes use of alternative materials to explore the line between physical and psychological space, ultimately questioning value. Ms. Nolan’s work has been shown both nationally and internationally, as part of group shows during Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach, and most recently in local gallery shows in Los Angeles. She is held in private collections in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. Artist Statement: I am an inter-disciplinary artist exploring the line between physical and psychological space through installation and experiential work. Visual rhythm forms the basis for the work on an aesthetic level; and intellectually each series draws upon my personal history of study in behavioral sciences as well as experiences in competitive athletics and the utilization of meditation, visualization, practice, and performance to connect mind with body. Unapologetic Slut is part of a larger body of work exploring the psychological disparity of our increasingly polarized society. Physical engagement with the work brings forth the concept that often what we collectively love or hate about polarizing figures is a reflection of self.
Unapologetic Slut. Encaustic on mirror, 12 x 48 inches, 2010
PRISCILLA OTANI San Francisco, CA www.mrpotani.com mrpotani@yahoo.com
Priscilla Otani is a mixed media artist, board member of the Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art (NCWCA) and managing partner of Arc Studios & Gallery in San Francisco. Her works have been selected in Bay Area, national and international exhibitions including Women + Money, Social Justice: It Happens to One, It Happens to All, Crossing to Safety, Half the Sky, Choice, Alabaster Blast, Woman + Body, Man as Object: Reversing the Gaze, Hidden Cities, Control, and Banned & Recovered. She has curated and managed exhibitions for Arc Gallery, Pacific Center for the Book Arts, National Women’s Caucus for Art and NCWCA. These exhibitions include F*ck U! In the Most Loving Way, Sacred & Profane, Chaos, Women Artists on Immigration and Cutting Edge Books. Born and raised in Japan and a naturalized citizen of the United States, Priscilla identifies as bicultural. Artist Statement: Ms. Fortune. NASTY women come in many flavors: those who are ambitious, those who speak up in a roomful of men, those who are not afraid of being the smartest person in the room, those who wear failure proudly and never give up, those who speak out against injustice, those who support other women’s victories, those who mentor others, those who inspire ambition in young women, those who bask in a partner’s admiration and pride, those who constantly balance priorities between career and family, those who say no to lowering their expectations, those who control their finances, those who are skilled negotiators, those who are not blocked learners, those who are flexible, those who command respect as visionary leaders, those who are nasty, period. Pick a fortune cook and find out what kind of a NASTY woman you are.
Ms. Fortune. Sculpture: glass jar, fortune cookies, fortunes, funeral paper, 6 x 6 inches, 2015-17
JESSICA PUTNAM-PHILLIPS Arlington, VT www.jessicaputnamphillips.com/gallery.html jessvt@comcast.net Jessica Putnam-Phillips is a ceramic artist, USAF Veteran, illustrator and activist. She received her MFA from the Art Institute of Boston and her BA from UNC-Wilmington. She was a resident artist at the Saratoga Clay Art Center and recently attended residencies at Haystack Mountain School of Craft and AIR Vallauris, France. She actively promotes ceramics and the arts through social media and her live streaming broadcasts. In addition to maintaining her studio practice Jessica teaches ceramics at the Community College of Vermont and the Vermont Arts Exchange and is on the board of trustees for the Vermont Crafts Council.
Artist Statement: As a reflection of her military experience, Jessica explores the juxtaposition of US service women in combat with the domestic and decorative nature of heirloom tableware. Using the notion of “serving� she creates ornate decorative forms associated with serving, depicting military women serving their country. Female soldiers in a war torn landscape are surrounded, not by enemies but by traditional floral borders embellished with gold and soft feminine colors. By combining military iconography with traditional floral elements and botanical patterns she subvert the once benign decoration while creating a personal narrative and contemporary social commentary. Through non-traditional imagery Jessica seeks to challenge the entrenched ideas of domesticity and gender roles while exposing the social and cultural issues faced by military women. Strongly influenced by opulent French porcelain this work encourages dialogue about pervasive social dynamics that prevent something perceived as violent and destructive from also being considered beautiful.
Pink Roses. Porcelain. 9 x 9 x 1.5 inches, 2017
JESSICA PUTNAM-PHILLIPS
Bismillah II. Porcelain, 6.5 x 6.5 x 1 inches, 2017
SPOOKY BOOBS COLLECTIVE Madison, WI www.spookyboobs.com spookyboobscollective@gmail.com SBC is a feminist collective that uses art, language, and design to visualize the trivialization of women’s experiences. SBC was formed in 2014 around the goal of producing public artworks with a mission to halt the perpetuation of sexism in our culture. Situating themselves within the history of women’s activism, they draw attention to prevalent language that continues to foster resentment and disrespect towards women, initiate community interaction to support the sharing of experiences, and instigate progress towards the eradication of misogynist language from our collective vocabulary. SBC’s work is manifested through art installations, performances, printed material, social media campaigns, and social interactions. SBC is made up of three feminist artists: Amy Cannestra, Myszka Lewis and Maggie Snyder. Artist Statement: One of our ongoing projects, The Patterns’ Vicious Influence, uses wallpaper as a conceptual vehicle to discuss the way language saturates our environment and imprints itself onto our peripheries. Our patterns are built using words that are used to diminish and minimize women; these words range from descriptors that disregard our ideas (ball and chain, crazy, emotional) to names that attack our bodies and sexuality (cunt, pussy, bull dyke). This language is a symptom of a long-established patriarchal society; it is insidious and harmful, impeding progress towards social equality. Our choice to expose this issue through design as wallpaper patterns was inspired by the early feminist text The Yellow Wallpaper, a short story in which a women is driven mad by the social minimization of her identity. “This paper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it had!” – The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Nasty. Removeable wallpaper, 132 x 48 inches, 2016
COLETTE STANDISH Berkeley, CA www.colettestandish.co.uk colette@colettestandish.co.uk
Colette Standish is an English painter and photographer and a graduate from St Martin’s School of Art, London UK. Colette has exhibited extensively throughout Europe and America. Her achievements include: Black and White Spider Photography Award, Hollywood, California 2016, Jessop’s Photography Prize in London, 2000 and fellowship awards in New Mexico, Italy, and Spain. Her work is in many public and private collections, including the Museum of Fine Art in Santa Fe and the Anais Nin Foundation Art Collection. Colette published her first art and poetry book in 2010, “Viaggio: A Journey through Life”. Colette also contributes regularly to, “A Café in Space; The Anais Nin Literary Journal”—Volumes 8, 9, 12 ,13 and 14. In 2016, Colette won a competition to exhibited at Art Basel in Miami and is now represented by the Art Box Gallery, Zug, Switzerland. Colette is currently working on projects, “Anais through the looking Glass” and a project on the homeless.
Lipstick kisses is an invitation to either get Naked or Arm up! Painted on with love delivered with a punch! A kiss off. A fuckable and Fuck you symbol. More valuable than any gun or bomb. ( The Fuck You in different languages is a recognition to all my sisters around the world )
Kiss Off. Lipstick, text, ink, 24 x 36 inches, 2016
MORGAN FORD WILLINGHAM Emporia, KS www.morganmford.com morgan.ford@gmail.com
Morgan Ford Willingham is a photographic artist and educator. After receiving a MFA in photography from Texas Woman’s University, she moved to the Midwest to pursue a career in academia and art making. Morgan examines how identity is shaped by advertising and societal pressures through the use of various mediums, including photography, book arts, and installation. Her work has been widely exhibited, including Humble Arts Gallery in NYC, Filter Photo in Chicago, and the Hite Institute of Art in Louisville, KY. She is currently Assistant Professor of Photography at Emporia State University in Kansas. Artist Statement: The Beauty Mask series examines how natural beauty is masked by cosmetics that women use every day, and how the language of advertising is absorbed into the subconscious, where it constantly influences what women buy and how they perceive themselves. In the newest phase of this series, the work references the symbolism of the female, Renaissance portrait. The self-portrait is used to investigate the various experiences of using cosmetics to commodify beauty.
Untitled 19 (The Beauty Mask). Metallic C-print, 15 x 11 inches, 2016
MEGHAN WILLIS http://tsurubride.com/ Brooklyn, NY tsurubride@gmail.com
Toronto-born, Brooklyn-based artist Meghan Willis aims to capture women’s strength and sexuality through textiles. Through the eye of the needle she explores the art of undressing, movement, and sensuality; to tempt the viewer to follow the delicate stitching that caresses the bodies she reveals through thread. Her work is soft textiles and romantic florals but stitched together with a sharp needle: plunging, pillaging, pushing and pulled together; stitch by stitch binding her work. Artist Statement: Eat Me: My mouth is not about pleasing you. Don’t tell me to smile. Don’t tell me pretty words, trying to convince me. These lips will not be silent, and these teeth will bite back.
Eat Me. Hand embroidery, leather, acrylics, cotton, 8 x 8 inches, 2017