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IDENTITY International Juried Exhibition Presented by the Women’s Caucus for Art Jurors Anne Swartz and Maria Elena Buszek at
May 31 — June 22, 2014
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Copyright 2014 by the Women’s Caucus for Art. The book author and each artist here, retains sole copyright to their contributions to this book. Catalog designed by: Karen Gutfreund, Museum & Gallery Liaison, WCA Cover Design by: Priscilla Otani, Past President WCA
ISBN: 978-1-939637-08-6 4
The gallery focuses on an international roster of artists who possess an inherent alternative edge and develop new methodologies and processes, encompassing everything from painting to digital media, from flat planes to multi-dimensional forms. Through carefully curated exhibitions, public installations, and private consultation, gallery nine5 breathes a new vitality into traditional ideas, reshaping and challenging conventional procedures in reinvigorating ways. By creating an atmosphere for intimate conversation, the gallery continues its commitment to provide accessibility, transparency, and quality, fostering relationships and pioneering innovative approaches. Working with both primary and secondary markets, gallery nine5 seeks to create and intensify ongoing participatory dialogues within the global art world. With access to world-class modern and contemporary works in the secondary market, our specialists provide in-depth research and sharp expertise to our clientele. 24 Spring Street, New York, New York 10012 info@gallerynine5.com www.gallerynine5.com 212.965.9995
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ABOUT THE WOMEN’S CAUCUS FOR ART The Women’s Caucus for Art was founded in 1972 in connection with the College Art Association (CAA). WCA is a national member organization unique in its multidisciplinary, multicultural membership of artists, art historians, students, educators, and museum professionals. The mission of the Women’s Caucus for Art is to create community through art, education, and social activism. WCA is committed to recognizing the contribution of women in the arts; providing women with leadership opportunities and professional development; expanding networking and exhibition opportunities for women; supporting local, national and global art activism; and advocating for equity in the arts for all. As an NGO (non-governmental organization) of the United Nations, the Women’s Caucus for Art actively supports the UN Millennium Goals. WCA utilizes art as the universal language to engage artists, NGOS, and civil society on a broad range of issues such as gender equity and environmental sustainability. As a founding member of the Feminist Art Project, WCA is part of a collaborative national initiative celebrating the Feminist Art Movement and the aesthetic, intellectual and political impact of women on the visual arts, art history, and art practice, past and present.
OUR MISSION: The mission of the Women’s Caucus for Art is to create community through art, education, and social activism. We are committed to: recognizing the contributions of women in the arts providing women with leadership opportunities and professional development expanding networking and exhibition opportunities for women supporting local, national, and global art activism advocating for equity in the arts for all For more information visit: www.nationalwca.org P. O. Box 1498, Canal Street Station, New York, NY 10013-1498 info@nationalwca.org, Tel: 212.634.0007 www.facebook.com/groups/107511953206/ twitter.com/#!/artWCA 6
FROM THE EXHIBITION DIRECTOR Art can be a powerful, productive force and instrumental in sparking change or critical thinking. The Women’s Caucus for Art is committed to supporting local, national, and global art activism. Art can produce a visceral response and can provoke, inspire, or disturb, and opens your eyes to worlds other than your own. While the artist may not consider themselves to be a revolutionary, by bringing to light issues and concerns, art can effect change. We need artistic expression that help us to understand what is happening in our society, who we are, where we come from and where we’re going. In a world dominated by pop culture, society and the media – how is identity defined? We asked for art to expose the extremism of a consumer culture dominated by western ideals of beauty and the pursuit of idealized feminine perfection coupled with the drive and desire for female autonomy, power and self-reliance by exploring themes of power, female representation and objectification. The female body is commoditized in all areas of society and used as a mechanism for power. When artists manipulate the boundaries of power and explore deeper themes of control, fetishism, and objectification, the viewer is challenged to confront his or her own gaze on the body and to reflect on aspects of the female persona. Female identity is often formed and realized through the male gaze, and it is usually depicted to appeal to male fantasies. As a consequence, women have often become asexual, believing this would warrant equality. This resulted in the division of femininity and sexuality. In our current era of reexamining female sexuality, can we as women now have an unmoderated and unfiltered voice in defining ourselves and desires, when we are still so heavily influenced by a patriarchal society? We asked the artists to imagine the female persona from a feminist perspective and to address the complex nature of women with their longing to enjoy their sexual bodies and to be desirable beyond any defining limits of gender. The works chosen for this exhibition address these issues and define identity through acceptance or rejection of society's view of women and their place in the world, whether as an object of desire or the objectified self and elicit a dialogue that honors sexuality, and mold the definition of the powerful feminine. Anne Swartz and Elena Maria Buszek chose 103 artists for Identity with 25 works in gallery nine5 and 7
an additional 81 featured in the catalog. This show is in collaboration with gallery nine5. We are honored to work with these artists and to showcase their work. We believe in the power of artists to create, connect, and change the world. It is the mission of WCA to document the artwork of women artists and we are pleased with this large collection of powerful works. A huge thank you to Amanda Uribe, assistant director and Sebastian Le Pelletier, owner, at gallery nine5 for partnering with us to put on this exhibition and Anne and Maria for compiling an incredible body of work on this theme from 396 artist submissions. Thank you to Priscilla Otani for the fabulous catalog cover design. And most of all, a heartfelt thanks to the Board and members of Women’s Caucus for Art for their ongoing work to create greater exposure for women in the arts and art as activism. Karen Gutfreund San Jose, California www.karengutfreund.com
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ABOUT THE JURORS
Anne Swartz is a professor of Art History at the Savannah College of Art and Design. She focuses on contemporary art, especially feminist artists, critical theory, and new media/new genre, in her writing, curating, and public lectures. Her main focus has been to support and advance innovative and transgressive work of both emerging and established artists whose art has not been fully examined. She's currently co-editing The Question of the Girl with Jillian St. Jacques and writing The History of New Media/New Genre: From John Cage to Now, a survey of developments in recent art.
Maria Elena Buszek, Ph.D. is a scholar, critic, curator, and Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Colorado Denver, where she teaches courses on Modern and contemporary art. Her recent publications include the books Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture and Extra/ Ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art; contributions to the anthology Punkademics: The Basement Show in the Ivory Tower and the exhibition catalogue In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States; and articles in Art Journal and TDR: The Journal of Performance Studies. Her current book project explores the ties between contemporary activist art and popular music.
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JURORS STATEMENT In jurying “Identity,” we were struck by how persistent certain themes and issues were in the submitted works. We selected pieces addressing the central issues posed by the exhibition announcement about how and in what ways women represent identity today “when artists manipulate the boundaries of power and explore deeper themes of control, fetishism, and objectification, [and] the viewer is challenged to confront his or her own gaze on the body and to reflect on aspects of the female persona […] from a feminist perspective.” The themes we noted throughout the many submissions included: ideals of beauty and fashion, masquerade and concealment, social pressure, conforming to and rejecting religious standards, domestic and personal containment, sensuality and sexuality, and relationships with the mother, with the father, with nature. The ways the artists define and present not just their gendered but their ethnic, racial, and sexual identity, and the spectrum of what the bodily-lived experience conveys struck us as dynamic, exciting, and engaging, taking to heart the National Women’s Caucus for Art’s call for artists to “push the envelope.” As jurors, we limited ourselves—in both the exhibition and catalogue—to works explicitly relating to the show’s prospectus. Our choices included artists concerned with commonalities in identity, in myriad manifestations, while other artists emphasized individual identity in local detail, while still others looked more symbolically at identity. We focused on the notion that simply representing a woman doesn't make an artwork about a woman's identity. Sometimes the artists used conventional markers, like the home, flowers, or the heart. Sometimes, they relied on less typical modes, such as distortion, contradiction, or doubling. The resurgence in contemporary feminist art towards looking to Surrealist theory and strategies for influence was clearly reflected in several works. We were also drawn to works that expressed the range of ways artists showcase relationships to significant people in our lives, which selected examples did in moving, wacky and even creepy ways. Ultimately, we were bowled over by the level of invention in media and content in the submissions for this exhibition. The challenge for us was in the selection process. We went through the National WCA’s recordbreaking number of submissions for this show, and found many outstanding works that are visually compelling and thought-provoking. However, both the theme and gallery’s space limitations necessitated a very short list for the exhibition’s final set of works. As such, we were grateful to the WCA for the opportunity to reproduce many other truly worthy pieces in the catalogue, which reflect both the diversity and number of pertinent work under consideration. Since we didn’t know the artists’ identities in the jurying process, we looked at the representations, references, and forms, seeking as broad a range as we could of the works where the conceptions of identity issues were the most 10
emphatic. Feminism remains both a personal and public political statement, with the submitted art in evidence of that still-pertinent point of the movement. We appreciated the opportunity for any womanidentified artist to submit and noted several submissions dealing with queerness, but longed for more such meditations. The new pertinence of social media and transgender identities in constructing the contemporary self were welcome subjects in selected examples for this show. We look forward to future exhibitions of the National WCA that encourage a larger range of art dealing with a more diverse set of queered subjects and lesbian experiences. For the WCA to support some survey of lesbian- and gender-queer oriented content, especially by emergent artists, makes sense at this point in its storied history, and in the meantime were thrilled to include several excellent works exploring such perspectives. It is interesting to us that, despite its importance to so many feminist artists that there was little art dealing with the environment in terms of identity. Similarly, we didn’t see as many meditations or critiques of technology, which is another area we hope finds its way into a future WCA exhibition. We were surprised by the small number of digital or web-based projects as well. That said, we happily worked with the selections available, given to us in digital forms to jury. The limitations of the gallery space meant that we had to give thought to the scale of the works available, but we found that, in the end, scale and size didn’t end up playing a role in our determinations and selections. We are glad that a few works in series were submitted so they could give slightly different perspectives on the artist’s image, although in several cases we relied on the catalogue to flesh out these serial works more fully. We were thrilled that an excellent DIY “take-away” project and a performance were available to us in the jurying process. Much of the submitted work was figurative and representational, and so the abstract pieces we chose were particularly satisfying reflections on the range of issues embodied in identity. Our own respective scholarship on feminist art and activism centers on the image of woman as she evolves, as she looks both outward and inward, which is apparent in many of our selections. Popular culture and stereotypes are evident, alongside meditations on art history, and how visual culture in the broadest sense shapes our identities. Critiques of past feminist art occurred less frequently, but still occur in ways we found alternately comical and melancholy. Sex, sexuality, and the self-portrait sometimes show up in conjunction or separately. We were concerned with diversity and wanted to 11
include art that showed images of the widest range of people. Most of all, we were pleased by the works using humor to confront grave and serious subjects such as religion, culture, health, and trauma. A sense of humor in art always warms our feminist hearts, and we are pleased that the power of laughter and play reverberate throughout the exhibition’s myriad explorations of “Identity.” Maria Elena Buszek and Anne Swartz
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IDENTITY In a world dominated by pop culture, society and the media – how is identity defined?
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I’m bringing Sexy back, Collage on paper 20 x 24 inches, 2014. Online
Issa Abou-Issa Houma, Louisiana www.issaart.com
Constantly annoyed at men gawking at me, I often wonder if men would continue to stare with lust if I was not up to their expectations of beauty or if they knew the ‘real me.’ Would they then perceive me as ‘beautiful?’ Look closely behind the facade. Come on, take a real good look. what you’ll see in me is a strong, Rebellious, selfsufficient woman filled with humor... but I can also be a monster waiting to drain your blood out! Watch out!
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Yellow Grrrls, Colored 4mm glass and acrylic crystals on canvas with embedded film loops/tablets, 46 x 38 inches, 2013.
Shonagh Adelman Long Island City, New York www.shonaghadelman.com
The Loopies series uses 4mm colored glass crystals on canvas to give familiar gender tropes a new (and different) ‘life’. As feminist authors have occasionally re-written the stories of female characters from the annals of “great literature”: “Wide Sargasso Sea” by Rhys, “Gertrude Talks Back” by Atwood etc., the loopies are parodic reincarnations of their progenitors. Injecting the images with realism via film loops, moving body parts (lips, eyes, head etc.) breathe life into their stylized, static host bodies. The composure of still/ted figures is jarred by moving clichés of seduction (pursing, blinking, winking). Undermining and highlighting fetishistic femininity, the film loops transform those proverbial tropes into figures whose would-be self-determination turns on harnessing (by fulfilling the hypothetical expectations of the viewer) and defying, through hyperbole, those same expectations.
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The Conversation, Colored 4mm glass and acrylic crystals on canvas with embedded film loops, 68 x 54 inches, 2013.
Shonagh Adelman Long Island City, New York www.shonaghadelman.com
The Conversation, from the Loopies series, uses embedded film loops within a colorful crystal surface to subvert proverbial gender tropes. Bubbling mud and rolling eyeballs suggest that an alternative interpretation can be uncovered under the crystals, behind the curtain and inside the brain/s.
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Cloning it Over Again, Oil and ink on paper, 85 x 51 inches, 2010. Online
Robin Adsit Claremont, California www.robinadsit.net
I am interested in the tension between the intimacies of private domains, whether bodies, or environments, and the forces which interrupt them. The images in my paintings often speak to the figures relationship to objects and place. I am attracted to the notion of a figure trapped somewhere between the public and private, the intimate and spectacle, representation and memory. In this painting the replication of the figure suggests cloning, which I use to investigate memory and representation. I was looking at the difference between my body and my daughters. I was interested in the fear of aging and change.
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Figure Acting as a Room Divider, Oil and graphite on paper, 65 x 51 inches, 2013. Online
Robin Adsit Claremont, California www.robinadsit.net
The images in my paintings often speak to the figures relationship to objects and place. I am attracted to the notion of a figure trapped somewhere between the public and private, the intimate and spectacle, representation and memory.
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Figure as an End Table, Watercolor and ink on paper, 30 x 24 inches, 2013. Online
Robin Adsit Claremont, California www.robinadsit.net
I am interested in the tension between the intimacies of private domains, whether bodies, or environments, and the forces which interrupt them.
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Raza, Inkjet with frame, 14 x 11 inches , 2011. Online
Alicia Aldama Santa Clara, California www.aldamazing.com
I have come to realize that my identity as a female has changed over the past few years. I am stereotyped everyday, but how can this be because I cannot even label myself? I am an artist, a wife, a mother, a sister, a student, a manager, a lover, a daughter, and so much more. For Raza: You want to know me? This is it. My heritage, my loves, my joy, my dedication, my addiction, my smile, and my pride. ยกSi Se Puede!
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Power, Inkjet with frame, 14 x 11 inches , 2011. Online
Alicia Aldama Santa Clara, California aldamazing@gmail.com
I wear my addiction on my sleeve. It is my armor, and also my life. My addiction does not hurt anyone but me. I endure the pain, I treat the wounds, and I wear the message. Yet, I am judged when I share my addiction with the world. I have accepted this, but it gives me more power to educate the ones who turn their backs on me.
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Secure, Inkjet image with frame, 16 x 20 inches, 2013. Online
Alicia Aldama Santa Clara, California aldamazing@gmail.com
For my baby girl Ixchel. I have gone from a girl with puppy dog tattoos, to a woman whose story can be read on my body. I look forward to the day when I can tell you about my life in black and gray ink.
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Sugar & Spice, Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, 2014. Online
Jane Bennett Patterson, New York jane259@earthlink.net
The pink represents the sweet feminine side of my personality. The black/red shows my break-out personality. I am both. You can decide what the blue tongue represents.
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Memories, Mixed media collage, 11 x 14 inches, 2013. Online
Margee Bright Ragland Clarkston, Georgia http://margee.squarespace.com
Memories reflects on scenes from my childhood. I was a tomboy, often mistaken for a Japanese boy, who longed to be a cowboy accompanied by my best friend, my cocker spaniel Jet, searching for the king of the lizards who would teach us a magic whistle that would enable us to talk to all the animals.
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Slung, Archival digital color print, 9 x 14 inches, 2008. Online
Barbara Butkus Albany, California www.barbarabutkus.com
How many ways can we carry a child? Modern parenting gives us an exhausting array of tools for holding our babies externally. We may pack, sling, snuggle, haul or push. Each method seems to make a statement about how we embrace or bear motherhood in our mind, heart and womb—as a joy, a gift or burden. We may feel swathed, shrouded or uncomfortably bound. Slung is the most recent image from the self-portrait series, Mommy Asanas.
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Pulp Novel Fantasy, Digital collage archival print, 24 x 18 inches, 2012. Online
Donna Catanzaro Windham, New Hampshire www.donnacat.com
Pulp Novel Fantasy is my homage to the covers of old lesbian pulp novels, gleaned from my personal collection of sleazy paperbacks. They were written for men, but secretly read by many young lesbians. Whose fantasy is it?
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Walk of Cunts (Study After Judy Chicago), Photo documentation of a performance on Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, California 20 x 27 inches each, 2011. Online
Audrey Chan Los Angeles, California www.audreychan.net
Walk of Cunts (Study After Judy Chicago) is a homage to Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, in which Chicago’s Chinese-American doppelganger renders in chalk the glorious cunts of noteworthy women along a stretch of Sunset Boulevard parallel to the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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Tess I, Photo print on matte paper, 8 x 10 inches, 2011. Online
Abigail Chance Portland, Maine a.e.chance@gmail.com
Abigail Chance seeks to renegotiate power dynamics by having participants actively represent and objectify themselves using a 20 foot cable release. The camera, instead of imposing or silencing, becomes a tool in the self-exploration of each participant’s queer, female identity. Tess explains: “My queer is bringing my sexual energy and beauty into my mathematical power and feeling that my lectures will be worth attending—that no one will sleep because their professor is sexy and brilliant and unafraid to climb furniture...”
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Tess II, Photo print on matte paper, 8 x 10 inches, 2011. Online
Abigail Chance Portland, Maine a.e.chance@gmail.com 29
Tess III, Photo print on matte paper, 8 x 10 inches, 2011. Online
Abigail Chance Portland, Maine a.e.chance@gmail.com 30
Future Hope, Hand stitched embroidery, appliquĂŠ and paint on vintage baby sheet, 52 x 38 inches, 2009. Online
Orly Cogan New York, New York www.orlycogan.com
The tableaux I create are inspired by relationships. I work with vintage embroideries made by women of previous eras. I act as a collaborator, modernizing their traditional work and altering its original purpose. The fabric becomes the foundation for a fantastical, exotic extrapolation. I am drawn to dichotomies, such as soft and tough, dirty and clean and fairytale and reality. My work explores common feminine archetypes and stereotypes, such as Madonna/Whore and the Femme Fatale. Searching for that odd thing, the Feminist Beauty Queen, I mix subversion with flirtation, humor with power, and intimacy with frivolity.
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Addiction, Obsession, Seduction, Steel, glass, vintage black and white photography inset to Blackberry interior, 6 x 17 x 5 inches, 2011. Online
Ceci Cole Mcinturff Washington, DC www.87-FLORIDA.com
Contemporary culture encourages an addictive seduction rivaling identity: technology. This sculptural book object examines technological capacity as identity. What do you know? How fast can you spin information and share images with others? Can you escape entirely into virtual reality? Are Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube fulfillment of Kurt Vonnegut’s 1961 admonition that “we are who we pretend to be”? And which is it: your handheld device as resented ball and chain to inescapable work (obsession), or a social lifeline to peers and power (addiction)? Ultimately, this piece suggests despite greater contact via high speed social media, we may be starved for intimacy.
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Barbara Zucker, Archival color pigment print 36.5 x 26 inches, 2008. Online
Judy Cooper New Orleans, Louisiana www.judycooperphotographs.com
Barbara Zucker: Born in Philadelphia, educated at University of Michigan and Hunter College. Lived and worked in New York until 1979 when she moved to Vermont to teach at the University of Vermont. Of her own work, she says: “Started making sculpture at University of Michigan at age nineteen. Have been unable to stop. Became a feminist around 1970. Have been unable to stop.�
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Harmony Hammond, Archival pigment print, 33.5 x 26 inches, 2010. Online
Judy Cooper New Orleans, Louisiana www.judycooperphotographs.com
Harmony Hammond lives and works in Galisteo, New Mexico. In addition to being a founder of A.I.R., she also was a founder in 1976 of Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art & Politics. Her paintings have been included in many exhibitions, including “WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution.� Hammond is also an art writer and independent curator. Her award-winning book Lesbian Art in America: A Contemporary History, was published by Rizzoli in 2000.
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Howardena Pindell, Archival pigment print on Fine Art Paper, 30 x 20 inches, 2007. Online
Judy Cooper New Orleans, Louisiana www.judycooperphotographs.com
Howardena Pindell: After graduating from Yale University School of Art and Architecture, Pindell moved to NYC where she has lived and worked as an artist, educator and museum person ever since. Her important position in this world of art was recognized by her presence in the group photograph on the May, 1997 cover of ARTnews, an issue celebrating the place of women in art. With both modesty and realism, she says of her success: “I would never have had a chance to exhibit if it had not been for the African American movement and the Women's Movement.�
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Six Days in Three Portraits, Photographs, digital painting, 4 x 1.5 inches, 2014. Online
Alex Curtiss New Orleans, Louisiana
In my daily life I seek to change my presentation on a daily basis, from the extravagantly feminine to the androgynous. I am interested in seeing how others react differently to different aesthetics, even though the person wearing the clothing is the same. Particularly, how people respond when I present as further outside of the accepted social parameters for female attractiveness, and responses to a feminine person visibly taking up space. I prefer to use cosmetics as an art form because of their feminine-coded status.
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Sophie, Digital C-Print, 20 x 24 inches, 2013. Online
Amanda Dandeneau Brooklyn, New York www.amandadandeneau.com
As a photographer, I am curious about what defines me as a woman; I seek to identify which traits of mine are feminine and which are more masculine. I attempt to explore my concept of female identity through female interaction. In my portraits I am observing the feeling of being revealed and revealing oneself, as well as the connection we have as women.
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What Will Her Kids Think? Acrylic and ink on white board, 18 x 24 inches, 2013. Online
Sally Deskins Omaha, Nebraska www.sallydeskins.tumblr.com
I explore appearances, reflection and disguise of inner self alongside motherhood, turning the view of the female form from distanced to affection. My womanly, sensual body-prints (pubic hair evident), offer a vital alternative to society’s objectified, popular prepubescent-styled bodies. The guise evokes inkblot tests, asking: what do you see? My self-portrait drawings on children’s pages, produced with my kids, explore motherhood’s role in art and body-image emanating a raw, intimate, playfully provocative image.
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Bound, Oil and enamel on canvas ironing board covers, 65 x 60 inches, 2010. Online
Barbara Dorchen Farmington Hills, Michigan www.barbaradorchen.com
The painted figures on ironing board covers depict the confines of women’s role in society. My identity as an artist and woman has evolved from these boundaries as these roles have changed over time.
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Artifacts, oil on paper, 44 x 30 inches, 2012. Online
Barbara Dorchen Farmington Hills, Michigan www.barbaradorchen.com
This series is inspired by images created by women throughout history. Their role as makers of crafts to becoming valued as creators of fine arts has influenced my identity and value as an artist.
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Je suis ce que Je suis, LED monitor in painted wooden tabernacle frames (19 x16.5) Mixed media and 8mm film transferred to DVD, 04:29 (continuous loop). Online
Francoise Duresse Boulder, Colorado www.francoiseduresse.com
I grew up between Haiti and Jamaica, two post-colonial cultures divided by very distinct languages and traditions. I was raised by grandparents who were born and raised in Benin and were devote Muslim and Voodoo practitioners. They shared parental duties with Jamaican and Israeli relatives. Je suis ce que Je suis explores some of the issues stirred up by the diverse mix in my ethnic and cultural background. The title is a quote from the French translation of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man that I heard a great deal as a child.
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Sandie in the Sky with Diamonds, Oil, metallic dust and dry pigments on canvas, 48 x 36 inches , 2012. Online
Merrilyn Duzy West Hills, California www.merrilynduzy.com
These paintings reflect a different take on the concept of femininity, power and sexuality. Sandie in the Sky with Diamonds, is a woman comfortable in her own skin. She celebrates herself as a sexual being far from the ideal. Maya is the female cosmic presence. She embodies the power of the universe becoming evident, representing wisdom and strength. Woman Bound challenges the idea of sensuality and sexuality framed by a religious icon. Straining against her bounds, this woman is in ecstasy rather than agony.
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How Old is Old? Collage, 48 x 36 inches, 2010.
Sally Edelstein South Huntington, New York www.sallyedelsteincollage.com
Like most women I have consumed an abundance of contradictory pop culture about what it means to be a woman in America. Our identities, expectations and sense of beauty are formed, distorted and influenced by these stifling stereotypes. Fragments of these images remain in many of us. These collages of media made women are a visual smorgasbord of stereotypes from the Cold War culture of happy housewives, Mad Men and mad as hell women offered by a mass media consumed with charades, clichĂŠs and fictions that flourished in the 50s-70s.
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7,000,000,001, Ceramic tile mosaic, 14 x 17 inches, 2014. Online
Eileen Fitz-Faulkner Orinda, California www.scapeartsculpture.com
Each of us holds our identity at the tip of our fingers. Every print so similar, yet unique. I have chosen to depict mine with alarm as we recognize our population, now at over 7 Billion. Made up of dots and dashes a veritable SOS signal; each a personalized warning right before our eyes.
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Arachne, oil on paper , 42 x 54 inches, 2008. Online
Marcia Freedman Detroit, Michigan www.marciafreedman.com
Each of my paintings uses the figure as a metaphor to speak about the breakdown of the body due to the effects of the environment or disease. The figures are fragmented and recontextualized into abstract imagery commenting on complex associations, perceptions and emotions. The resultant imagery is based on the constant inquiry into the reality of life experience.
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Bound, Oil, 36 x 72 inches, 2012. Online
Marcia Freedman Detroit, Michigan www.marciafreedman.com
Each of my paintings uses the figure as a metaphor to speak about the loss of a loved one due to the effects of the environment or disease.
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2_Steps, Oil, 72 x 96 inches, 2013. Online
Marcia Freedman Detroit, Michigan www.marciafreedman.com 47
Daddy’s Dummy, Discarded Clothing, 45 x 28 inches, 2008. Online
Linda Friedman Schmidt Franklin Lakes, New Jersey www.lindafriedmanschmidt.com
I was raised as an obedient robot, forced to learn at an early age that the only way to get love was to become dehumanized, stripped of my individuality. The result was a loss of self, self-perception fractured and broken into bits. I had no choice but to yield to the authority, power, aggression, and control of my father who discarded and transformed me into the person he wanted me to be. As an artist now I am the transformer manipulating and controlling cloth, rescuing and transforming discards, picking up the pieces.
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“Little Red Riding Hood” Large Acrylic Study IX & XI, Acrylic on watercolor paper, 24 x 48 inches, 2012. Online
Véronique Gamiber Brooklyn, New York www.veroniquegambier.com
Inspired by the contradistinctive values of the medium and subject I am using, I search for the tension within one color to suggest an intimate but forward movement and to seek the balance between the known and the unknown. In this body of work, I am exploring the classic children’s tale “Little Red Riding Hood” to portray the contradictory emotions that a maturing girl encounters over the course of her journey to womanhood; the way innocence comes with sin, seduction with danger.
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Dwarfed Roses with IVs, Paper collage, 2013. Online
Lucy Julia Hale Cave Spring, Georgia lucyjulia@live.com
Mass-produced images of rooms—my actors—dressed with collaged details to portray the scenes and character of American culture. The revealed cultural identity in my work resonates to me with Marge Piercy’s ‘A Work of Artifice’: ‘one must begin very early to dwarf their growth: the bound feet, the crippled brain, the hair in curlers, the hands you love to touch.’
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Body 11.22.12, Oil on oval canvas, 36 x 30 inches, 2012. Online
Gwen Hardie New York, New York www.gwenhardie.com
Using myself as model, I observe and magnify from life, small portions of the female body. Rather than presenting an idealized version, blemishes, moles and veins are included as part of reality. Personal identity in my work is revealed in the tiniest of details, yet these details are found in all skin types. My aim in these paintings is to subvert and transform the objectification of women into a view of the female body which promotes acceptance, encourages identification and questions our sense of individual boundaries.
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off the wall, Oil on canvas, 96 x 72 inches, 2013. Online
Mia Tarducci Henry Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania www.miatarduccihenry.com
These pieces focus on the female’s role in her own objectification. They ask three different questions—what is our responsibility in the role of nurturer, what is our responsibility to ourselves to seek internal rather than external validation and how do we confront societal expectations and labels.
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Nuts, Oil on canvas, 60 x 120 inches, 2013. Online
Mia Tarducci Henry Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania www.miatarduccihenry.com 53
Nature vs. Nurture, Oil on canvas, 60 x 168 inches, 2013. Online
Mia Tarducci Henry Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania www.miatarduccihenry.com 54
Selfie, Oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches, 2014. Online
Erin Hinz South Bend, Indiana www.erinhinz.com
Through my work I wish to invite the viewer to re-imagine the uses of our bodies and our desires. The paintings are joyful acts of disobedience about what it means to be a female right here, right now. I seek to give form to these notions by using certain visual strategies that allude to the internal realm of self-pleasure, which in terms of American female sexuality might be the most feared and taboo subject.
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Skins #1, Archival pigment prints, 64 x 64 inches, 2012. Online
Karen Hymer Tucson, Arizona www.karenhymer.com
Using an iPhone camera, I document my body close-up and in much finer focus than is possible with the naked eye. Viewed at a large scale and devoid of context, these abstract representations defy recognition and cannot be confidently identified even as male or female, internal or external, healthy or marred. Each texture, crease, and coloration unapologetically marks the vagaries of time. Enlarged, juxtaposed, and displayed as polyptychs, these works become an intimate testament to the mysteries of the aging body.
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Skins #2, Archival pigment prints, 64 x 64 inches, 2012. Online
Karen Hymer Tucson, Arizona http://karenhymer.com 57
Skins #3, Archival pigment prints, 64 x 64 inches, 2012. Online
Karen Hymer Tucson, Arizona http://karenhymer.com 58
Conquest and Civilization, Glitter and Elmer’s glue on panel, 4 x 6 feet, 2010.
Claire Joyce Philadelphia, Pennsylvania www.clairejoyce.com
The contemporary female must contend with culturally shifting ideas of femininity. Whether domestic roles are embraced as empowering or rejected out of hand, shifting ideas of power and submission force the female to divide herself. My glitter self portraits reference art historical imagery. I split myself into the roles I fill and insert myself into the history of female imagery. By re-imagining myself in these images I am reclaiming and accepting my feminine role(s)—both culturally expected and self-inflicted.
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Self Portrait as Plasma, Oil and acrylic on Masonite, 48 x 48 inches, 2014. Online
Deborah Justice Afton, Virginia www.deborahjustice.com
I have too long allowed my identity to be tethered to the parameters of my lover, my community, my culture. Identifying as a woman feels fragmented. Add lesbian or artist or fill in the blank, and instantly I long for the part of me that is denied. The ropes tighten until i must break free to roam as my own full self, searching the cavern of my being for lost shards and shiny objects.
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Hood (2), Inkjet print (using hood with 11,000 hand beaded Swarovski pearls), 20 x 28 inches, 2014.
Lauren Kalman Providence, Rhode Island www.laurenkalman.com
Hoods was inspired by the architect Adolf Loos’ 1910 lecture Ornament and Crime, where he proposes that is that ornament is regressive and primitive, and that in (his) contemporary society only degenerates and criminals are decorated (this includes women). The “crime� in my work points to the decorated, and also to female sexuality. Hoods or masks that reflect sculptural ornamentation and adornment are combined with the body. These juxtapositions will point to historical, political, and social contexts relating to sex, power, pleasure, and beauty.
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Today is another day, Digital, 12 x 12 inches, 2011. Online
Lily Lihting Li Kostrzewa Mt. Pleasant, Michigan www.lilykostrzewa.com
Identity Search: When I first came to America I knew I was a Chinese growing up in Taiwan, then years went by and I became a permanent American resident. I started asking myself who am I? I am a Chinese permanently living in America. One day I become an American citizen, I said to myself now I am a Chinese-American. When I was a teacher people called me Ms. Li, when I became a mother people called me Mrs. Kostrzewa, I asked myself who am I? Every stage of life we all ask who am I? I am a dreamer forever searching for unknown answers.
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Old Girls Love Short Dresses too, Oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches, 2014.
Beth Lakamp Fenton, Missouri www.bettsvando.com
Colorful characters, women dressing to feel sexy in fashions they enjoy.
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Measures, Found papers, oil, enamel, 12 x 12 inches, 2012. Online
Sarah Lapp Fredericksburg, Virginia www.etsy.com/people/ SarahLappArt
Minimalist collected vintage paper epherma in a support of oil and enamel comprise an intimate and sensitively exposed piece.
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Look Book With Masks, Pencil on paper, 32 x 20 inches, 2013. Online
Georgia Sydney Lassner Brooklyn, New York www.georgiasydneylassner.com
My work embodies my struggle to understand and function within power dynamics; in particular, the tension between identity, performance, and dominance. I am uncomfortable with my willingness to be submissive in certain contexts (employer/ employee, male/female, heterosexual/homosexual), versus the expectation of my identity as dominant lesbian female. I cope with this by accessing alternative identities, often through historical narratives and symbols which help me explore gender difference and expectation.
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GIRL WORLD OUR WORLD OUR BRAINS WE LIVE HERE AND WE LOVE IT: An Erotic Memoir Performance and handwritten, hardbound copies of memoir (Edition of 2), 6,651 Words, 6.25in x 9.25in x 1in , 2014.
Megan Mantia & Leone Anne Reeves Kansas City, Missouri www.blanketundercover.com
This memoir is a spew of whatever came to our minds, things we know women don’t talk about in public/online/in school/ in movies/ at home. What prevents us from putting our thoughts out there honestly, who is the judge that we tip toe around most gingerly? We concluded that our mothers are our most highly regarded figures. We fear any shame or discomfort that our behavior might bring to them, implicating the way they raised us.
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Ecstasy Face, Digital Print mounted on Gator Board, 48 x 120 inches, 2014. Online
Megan Mantia & Leone Anne Reeves Kansas City, Missouri www.blanketundercover.com
Mary Magdalene has a tarnished reputation, rumored to have been the wife of Jesus, or a redeemed prostitute. Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Teresa is arguably one of the most erotically charged depictions of a female religious figure in history. Their expressions are brilliant examples of how a woman turns inward, entering a private mental space to revel in pleasure. The sexuality of these women made them prime candidates to be portrayed as women in touch with ecstasy.
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My First Time: Glory Days Series, Digital photograph , 20 x 30 inches, 2012. Online
Megan Mantia & Leone Anne Reeves Kansas City, Missouri www.blanketundercover.com
Glory Days is a series of 12 photographs portraying fantasy sexual relationships for the female mind, involving only women. The irrational nature of fantasies is a concept understood by women, and though some involve male characters, they do not exist for men. We are exploiting the tradition of the ‘Leg Avenue’ cartoon of sexual fantasy. Costume culture provides a pre-packaged vision of sexy, designed so women know what’s hot to men. It’s easy to criminalize, but women can also be turned on by a fantasy version of themselves.
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I’ll Have Nun of That, Shot Through the Heart, Thriller from Glory Days Series Digital print, 20 x 30 inches, 2012. Online
Megan Mantia & Leone Anne Reeves Kansas City, Missouri www.blanketundercover.com 69
Cheshire Cat, Mixed-media sculpture with hand-sewn skin of Inkodye and toned cyanotype photographs on fabric, 22 x 32 x 28 inches, 2014. Online
Tasha Lewis Indianapolis, Indiana www.tashalewis.info
My work has always centered around the act of sewing. I reclaim this female craft to create a new topography for contemporary sculpture that brings together various media. Each stitch marks the passage of time. As the thread connects the disparate photographs on fabric, the prints take on a new identity as a whole; they become a cohesive skin describing a single female body made by a female hand. This body is powerful because her curves exists between the softness of textiles and the rigid lines of photography.
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Lust, Inkjet print on acrylic, 38 x 88.25 x 4 inches, 2011.
Jessica Lichtenstein New York, New York www.jessicalichtenstein.com
LUST is one piece in a series of works that appropriates images from pornographic Japanese-inspired comic books. I like taking images that exist in various cultures—of female representation, fetishism and objectification—and putting them into a different context, allowing the viewer to engage with and question their own reactions to these hyper-sexualized images—whether it be feelings of shock, disgust, power, vulnerability, shame or lust. I think it makes people question what they are comfortable with, and why?
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Jhonathan, William and Quay, Acrylic on paper, 22 x 30 inches each, 2010. Online
So Yoon Lym North Haledon, New Jersey www.soyoonlym.com
These braid patterns are the language for the new aboriginal, the transplanted and de -territorialized nomad. The braid patterns both record journeys to the present and represent cartographical longings; they are a stamp of entry into a brave new world order while simultaneously remembering prehistory.
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The Castle, Digital C-Print, 30 x 40 inches, 2013.
Jessica Maria Manley Mount Arlington, New Jersey www.jessicamariamanley.com
In a world dominated by pop culture and the media I create photographs with the intent to provoke internal questioning regarding our own identity. Adults have ascertained a set of values and a moral code of conduct in an effort to neatly blend into the world around them. It is only when images disturb our own values and norms individuals are made to feel ill at ease. What is viewed as odd or disturbing and can be linked to the disruption of the moral code ingrained both in the observer and the observed.
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The Living Room, Digital C-Print, 30 x 40 inches, 2013.
Jessica Maria Manley Mount Arlington, New Jersey www.jessicamariamanley.com
I was seeing the effects of the ever-present pressures on children, especially young girls, to grow up fast. Although I was photographing my sister at a very young age there was a mature gaze that was ever present and a sense that she was wise beyond her years—the thief of innocence being a venomous combination of media, marketing and peer pressure. These changes in modern culture are increasingly making our young people old before their time.
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Chan & Mann’s New Fantasy (The Video), HD video, 16:29 min., 2013.
Chan & Mann Los Angeles, California http://audreychan.net http://elanamann.com
Chan & Mann’s New Fantasy (The Video) opens upon a painted allegorical scene depicting a not-so-ordinary day in the studio with Chan & Mann. They wrestle with issues of feminist and ethnic identity with a cast of characters, such as Dorah the Menorah, Michelle Obama, fortune cookies, and a feminist megaphone. Live action and animated scenes continue the narrative into everyday and imaginary spaces, including Hollywood’s famed Grauman’s (now TCL) Chinese Theater.
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Fighting Fire with Fire No.2, C-Type print, 63 x 60 cm, 2007.
Sarah Maple Crawley, UK www.sarahmaple.com
In Fighting Fire with Fire No.2 I am looking at my identity as being raised as a Muslim in a western society. I have mixed parentage and this duality has played a huge role in my upbringing. In an ever-multicultural world, I am asking if it is possible for us to live side by side. As with much of my work is dealing with difficult topics, I use the humour and satire as a tool to express these ideas.
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Untitled with Skirt Up, Oil on board, 40.5 x 51 cm, 2011
Sarah Maple Crawley, UK www.sarahmaple.com
Untitled with Skirts up is inspired by how there is never a perfect age to be a woman. When they are children there is a need by the media to sexualise them or for them to grow up before their time. Then when women get to adulthood the need is for us to remain young, be that through ‘sexy school girl outfits’, ‘turn back time’ ageing cream or by the obsession with us removing all of our body hair. This is not only physically but I believe society enforces this further in a subconscious way. We are encouraged to diet to stay small and childlike, never to mature, never to take up too much space in the world, never to be strong and powerful. I see this as a subconscious way of keeping us in our place.
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Lollypop Lollypop, C-Type print, 59 x 45 inches, 2011.
Sarah Maple Crawley, UK www.sarahmaple.com
In Lollypop Lollypop I wanted to challenge our instinctive reactions to find women’s body hair repulsive. I decided to create an accepted image of an attractive pin up and combine the two. By combining a traditional idea of beauty with something that is considered to be repulsive, I aim to create an uncomfortable feeling that would aide the viewer to question these beliefs.
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Freedom of Speech, Video, 5mins 6seconds, 2013. Online
Sarah Maple Crawley, UK www.sarahmaple.com
In Freedom of Speech I was inspired by the death threats and backlash I have received for the work I have made and similar abuse aimed at feminists online. As we live in a free society many people say if we stopped online abuse, it would hinder people’s freedom of speech. But what about the freedom of speech of the person being abused? This work reflects my post-abuse experience. Although outwardly I felt strong, subconsciously I began to self-censor and rethink how I was working. The abuse was a way to silence me and this reflects the experience of many artists and activists today, especially when online.
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Four More, Oil on canvas, 72 x 72 inches, 2013. Online
Diane Messinger Truro, Massachusetts www.dianemessinger.com
These works not only represent my own personal struggle as a woman to stand up for myself but the abuses of woman all over the world written about by Nicholas Kristoff.
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Dining with JFK, C Print on Archival Paper, 24 x 20 inches, 2004; 2014.
Ellen Deitell Newman New York, New York www.ellendeitellnewman.com
IDENTITY: ‘Who am I’?, ‘What is possible in my life’? I experience opposing forces within—a modern feminist dilemma. The conflict between my need to be powerful with full control over my body, my person, my life, versus a yearning for acceptance, security, value, importance, recognition, love. Shall we Live fearlessly? Or just sit tight—and NOT rock the boat? Through sheer fantasy and fun, I shoot for the heights and act on a desire to break life’s boundaries. I propel myself out of the confines of the predictable and into scenarios out of the realm of possibility. What better way than to participate in events where I literally rub shoulders with celebrity—and when I do, does celebrity rub off on me? Shall I then become royalty, too?
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Unapologetic Slut, Encaustic on mirror, 48 x 12 inches, 2010. Online
Tanya Nolan Los Angeles, California www.tmnfineart.com
These works stem from a series examining the polarization of American society. Through language and material, the series explores what we love and despise about divisive people, and ultimately how our feelings toward them reflect our relationship to self, identity and how we want to be seen.
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Tragic Beauty, Encaustic on mirror, 48 x 12 inches, 2011. Online
Tanya Nolan Los Angeles, California www.tmnfineart.com 83
Infectious Culture, Silver, copper, gold leaf, glass, resin, tampon fibers, tobacco/butts, bread mold, 20 x 10 x 8 inches, 2012. Online
Jessica Parker Gulfport, Mississippi jap119@humboldt.edu
I am interested in the tension between the intimacies of private domains, whether bodies, or environments, and the forces which interrupt them. The images in my paintings often speak to the figures relationship to objects and place. I am attracted to the notion of a figure trapped somewhere between the public and private, the intimate and spectacle, representation and memory.
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Little Savages, Illustrations printed on recycled paper, 5 x 7 inches, stack of 100, 2013.
Samantha Persons Champaign, Illinois www.samanthapersons.com
Little Savages is part of a larger project called ‘Outpost’ which currently focuses on three queer female bodied individuals trying to survive alone in the wilderness. With this larger project I am creating a place for queer identity in a male heteronormatively -dominated Science Fiction Trope. When there is no one left what does it mean to be queer. Why are post-apocalyptic narratives focused on procreation and species survival, where are the queer bodies?
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Little Savages, Detail. Illustrations printed on recycled paper, 5 x 7 inches, stack of 100, 2013.
Samantha Persons Champaign, Illinois www.samanthapersons.com 86
Untolled Tales, Ceramic, 10 x 11.5 x 7.5 inches, 2008. Online
Kristine Poole Santa Fe, New Mexico www.kristinepoole.com
Untolled Tales is textured with comments said to and about women, including “what she needs is to get laid,” “I’d do her,” “wanna get screwed” and so on. These words and the attitudes they represent become part of her identity-how others see her and how she sees herself. The constriction of self this way of thinking can create is represented by the choker around her neck. These “tales” often go unspoken and the cost or damage to one’s self becomes too much to be tallied.
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The Expectation of Silence (For Gloria), Tin, Copper, 12 x 8 x 7 inches, 2012. Online
Joanna Posa Melbourne, Australia rapjojo@optusnet.com.au
Inspired by Steinem’s 1981 essay Men and Women Talking. Our ability as women to create, develop and explore an identity is inextricably linked to our ability to freely express ourselves without fear of censorship. There is a broader expectation to censor the female voice, to stop rallying for equality in favor of a more conventional female role. Too often the female voice is criticized for simply being exercised. The androgyny of the piece also questions the expectation of silence from men in order to maintain the status quo.
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Henriette Higgins, Digital Video, 6 minutes and 35 seconds, 2011. Online
Brittany Prater Ridgewood, New York http://brittanyprater.com
A video camera is a loveable and despicable tool because it rests at the center of the media industry—currently dominated by fantasies of male construction. In my work I use video to mix and interrupt myths and fantasies; to highlight, deconstruct and obliterate the song and dance routine while also making love to it. Because lets face it, sex sells. Maybe it’s time to sell it to the other 51 percent of the population—at least 50 percent of the time. (You boys can keep the extra 1 percent if you really need it that badly)
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Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom; The Temptation of Eve, Photograph on plexiglass substrate, 27 x 33 inches, 2012.
Mei Xian QIu Los Angeles, California www.meixianqiu.com
The Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom series explores notions of gender against a backdrop of a post feminist, subversive mock invasion of the United States. The work ultimately is about the latent power of the feminine, and the relationship of such power to our farcical adherence to the belief of the immutable self. Never forgetful of the past, Qiu looks squarely to the future and the constant shifts of identity and the need for self invention in the age of globalism.
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Equal Strength Heroes, Acrylic on canvas, 2 panels of 31.5 x 47 inches, 2013. Online
Saba Qizilbash www.sabaqizilbash.com
Clothing in societies with strict dress codes attempt to kill many birds with one stone. An identity is imposed restricted by gender roles and expectations. The disembodied gown, poised and elegant, challenges the rooster to try and fit into her role. The rooster takes up the challenge with the gown pooling untidily around him. Even his tangible form is unable to achieve what the absent wearer achieves. She starches her gown with generations of memories of what she has been expected to do.
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Girls Love Horses, HD video, 13 minutes, 2013.
Jennifer Reeder Hammond, Indiana www.thejenniferreeder.com
A professional woman, traveling alone, recalls and reenacts an incident from her adolescence after injuring herself off-camera. This experimental narrative unravels patiently and points to melodrama as a potential form of plot structure. An adult female and the girl ghost from her past emerge and retreat within real-time exchanges and previously recorded footage. The linearity is disrupted by magical b-roll and a constant shift between the actual and imagined. This is a fractured little story about a business trip, a bloodstain and being okay.
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And I Will Rise if Only to Hold You Down, HD video, 24 minutes total , 2012. Online
Jennifer Reeder Hammond, Indiana www.thejenniferreeder.com
A couple (an amateur magician and a modern dance instructor) discusses their impending and badly-hatched plan to break up, while in a nearby room, their teenager daughter and her bff prepare for the high school dance. The couple’s actions away from each other suggest that they are still deeply in love but hilariously unable to communicate or emote successfully. Their daughter and her friend awkwardly discuss an encounter with the friend’s biological mother earlier in the day. In the end, multiple secret crushes are revealed. This is a story about loving, being loved, a glowing in the dark and slow jams.
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Tears Cannot Restore Her: Therefore, I Weep, HD video , 10 min loop, 2011. Online
Jennifer Reeder Hammond, Indiana www.thejenniferreeder.com
A professional sign language interpreter becomes very unprofessional as she suffers a sincere but hilarious emotional breakdown during a gathering for hearing impaired physics enthusiasts whose motto is “Let’s Get PhysicScal”.
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Cultural Kudzu, Silk flowers, enamel, yarn, beads, ribbon and plaster, 80 x 48 x 40 inches, 2013. Online
Stacy Rexrode Chapel Hill, North Carolina www.stacybloomrexrode.com
The parallel universes of motherhood, artist and feminist merge together in my work in a manner that makes social context collide with domesticity. Making my mark with domestic materials embraces the positive aspects of women’s history as makers. Whether I reference a culture that has adopted a princess mentality for our daughters through crochet and beaded ribbon kudzu tentacles or needlepoint fallacious statements by politicians, I want to draw attention to the pervasive gender associations imposed on young women.
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self portrait second try, Acrylic on linen, 48 x 60 inches, 2013. Online
Holly Knox Rhame New York, New York www.hkrhamefineart.com
Each work is an attempt to unpack a traumatic memory previously dissociated with the intention of rebuilding my own identity. My practice is an attempt to reclaim my own history by providing a container for that history. The paintings function as mirrors for myself and present as landscapes in an attempt to locate my origin within culture as well as unpack a fundamental relationship between trauma, the body (archive) and the landscape.
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diablo, Acrylic paint, assorted papers, dress patterns, 12 x 12 inches, 2013. Online
Launa D. Romoff Los Angeles, California www.launadromoff.com
As I get older I find that I am more accepting of my body with all of it’s flaws. I have embraced my sensuousness, dress for it and yes, flaunt it willingly!
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Insensible Rock, Wood, 45 x 40 x 12 inches, 2011.
Phyllis Rosser New York, New York www.phyllisrosser.com
As a young girl I used bare branches for bows and arrows to play “Indian Brave,” pretending I was a male. I thought trees protected me during a difficult childhood. In my 20s I collaged driftwood I found on beaches into large sculptures that expressed my feelings abstractly: anger, solitude, silence, dancing. Now, branches washed smooth by the Connecticut River connect me to my inner life. Constructing the work feels masculine. I am strong, aggressive, in charge of what I’m doing when I’m in my studio.
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Sea Faring Ship, Wood, 34 x 51 x 10 inches, 2013. Online
Phyllis Rosser New York, New York www.phyllisrosser.com 99
The Truckers -’ BUTTERCUP’, High fire ceramic, vintage toy truck, steel base, 7 x 4 x 6.5 inches, 2011. Online
Samantha Senack Los Angeles, California www.samsenack.com
My works involve the psychological experience of recognizing freedom. I use unconventional scale and proportion to extract the viewer from a known reality to explore the stages of inhibition. The cracks, imperfections, rusting and use of archaic objects within my sculptures are essential to my work. They reflect the flaws that have been remedied with time and embraced as an empowering part of their history.
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Today I Am A Mother, Digital archive print, 20 x 16 inches, 2011.
Sonal Shah New York, New York www.flickr.com/ photos/85269033@N08/
A woman’s role, identity or idea of self can change significantly throughout her life. Accordingly I started to see myself torn even during a random day between my different selfs. At times I realized I am insignificant and at other times I am the key in the situation. The two self-portraits are an attempt to capture the extreme of some of these moments. The choice of colour versus black and white is deliberate to reflect the turmoil or tranquility.
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Alone But Together, Digital archive print, 20 x 16 inches, 2013.
Sonal Shah New York, New York www.flickr.com/photos/85269033@N08/ 102
Happily Ever..., Grease pencil, acrylic paint, glitter and vinyl cutouts sewn to polyester film, 42 x 50 inches, 2012. Online
Manju Shandler Brooklyn, New York www.ManjuShandler.com
My narrative mixed media paintings and tapestries are a meditation on current events presented through a mythical lens that build upon established storylines in pursuit of ordering madness in dense and complicated times. The series IDLE WORSHIP explores the mythology of femininity in pop culture, taking inspiration from the dubious nature of fairytale endings, the earthy sensuality of 70s playboy magazines, recycled grocery bags, and fashion magazines.
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Seam Splitter, Watercolor on paper, 22 x 30 inches, 2013. Online
Sharon Shapiro Louisa, Virginia www.sharonshapiro.com
I don’t believe that the characterizations of beauty and beast are mutually exclusive. Instead, I see the conflict that exists between a person’s placid exterior and their churning, riotous core. My practice is to transgress boundaries between human and animal, portraying opposing forces: subject matter both gentle and abrasive, fantastic and real, dangerous and safe. Drawn to female figures whose feral nature proves crucial to her survival, I explore the anxiety, aggression and insatiable desire lurking beneath the surface.
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Please Don’t Touch, Photographic archival print, 18 x 22 inches, 2009. Online
Dani Shirtcliff Beverly, Massachusetts www.danishirtcliffstudio.com
The images were self-portraits taken in domestic settings focusing on the environment, dress and gesture. Many of the images are fragmented showing only a portion of the figure in relation to the environment. The portraits are intentionally without the identity of a recognizable face. The gestures, body and objects serve to emphasize both physical as well as emotional states of being.
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The Art of the Selfie, All digital phone photography and compositing, 12 x 18 inches, 2014.
Erin Sparler Marysville, Pennsylvania www.ErinSparler.com
My work explores the use of modern and traditional multiple exposure technology to create shifting perceptions and meaning through the combination and layering of imagery. I use in-camera double and triple exposures with shifts and rotations of the focal point to reference historical art icons. I also exploit sexy pin-up girl poses in conjunction with memes and all in app compositing to push the boundaries of what can be done.
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Mas Cara, Acrylic and paint markers clayboard, 9 x 7 inches, 2011. Online
Rebekah TarĂn Penasco, New Mexico www.brushfireartemasfina.com
Making art is an act of resistance, a re-framing of life in the margins. It is the claiming of space in a mainstream culture that actively seeks to suppress the voice and visibility of working class queer folks of color. My universe is a constant shape-shift moving across landscapes of Chicanisma, queerness, parenthood, feminism, divinity and other liberatory processes. Our future depends on the resistance and leadership of woman and girls. And we have the right to define what it means to be liberated.
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Diana, Mixed media , 48 x 72 inches, 2012. Online
Lisa Turngren New York, New York laturngren@earthlink.net
My work investigates personal and social gender constructs by exploring inheritances and legacies across generations of women through the passing down of objects and unconscious processes that symbolize and form gender ideals, stereotypes and traditions Observing historical patterns that inform us I note that these need not be adhered to and may not apply to who we are or wish to be, acknowledging the intersections that form a relationship with or disconnect from societal and individual patterns that are created and repeated.
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Before You Cut, Mixed media , 48 x 72 inches, 2012. Online
Lisa Turngren New York, New York laturngren@earthlink.net 109
Compact, Compact with foundation and sandpapers, 4 x 4 x 4 inches, 2012.
Joanne Ungar Brooklyn, New York www.joanneungar.com
These collages are inspired by the beauty industry. The jumping off point for me was the lengths the cosmetics companies go to in order to sell their product— specifically, the retouching of women to make them appear to be flawless, superhuman specimens. Examining and living in this reality ( I support myself by working as a re-toucher of cosmetics commercials) led me to examine cosmetic products and how they are sold, as a portal to a deeper psychological level of packaging—the packaging of femininity.
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Women Must be Good Lovers, Dress and black thread, 28 x 51.25 inches, 2008.
Cristina Velazquez Palo Alto, California www.cristinavelazquez.com
Women Must be Good Lovers, is a piece that addresses body and sex issues for women. This piece is part of the series Every Dress I Must Wear (a series of dresses) which presents reconsidered thoughts and inherited ideas—for example, younger generations are clothed with old, limited views. In my mind, if we are unable to create a distinct vision for ourselves, the same inherited way of life stands, folded in with the new. This too is a matter of molding and reshaping what the female body should be for self and for others.
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Women Must be Saints, Dress and objects, 28 x 51.25 inches, 2008.
Cristina Velazquez Palo Alto, California www.cristinavelazquez.com
A place for prayer and devotion appears in Women Must Be Saints. A strong affinity for religious objects to keep women in good moral standing is fulfilled by the bible, a crucifix, images of saints, rosaries, medals, holy water, and scapulars.
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Silken Ruin (room view), Installation: fibers, wire, acrylic, charcoal and ashes, 16’ x 16’ room, 2013. Online
Candace Whittemore Fredericksburg, Virginia www.candacewhittemore.com
There is no greater loss than the loss of self. It is our window to experience the world, the culmination of our senses melting in synch. My work evaluates fragmentation of the self within various strains on the psyche. These explorations are prompted by my interpersonal relationships and cultural interactions. As a woman artist, social and cultural happenings that affect gender are interwoven within my work. Body image, gender roles and domestic issues that bind women are evaluated and brought to the surface.
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Justin & Rope, Hailey & Hitachi, and Megan & Vibrator, Embroidery, leather on linen, 14 x 14 inches, 2013.
Meghan Willis Brooklyn, New York www.tsurubride.com
Accoutrements: Portraits of People and their Sex Toys, aims to showcase taking ownership of one’s own sexuality, stripped bare. Participants stand proudly holding their own sexual accessories that they feel empowers them and their sexuality, displaying different shapes and body hair choices. Each piece is lovingly hand embroidered, while the accoutrements are leather appliques painted in acrylics— mixing hard with soft, and reclaiming a feminine medium with power and strength.
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Beheaded, Screen print on fabric with red silk thread, 16 x 30 inches, 2007. Online
Tammy Jo Wilson Milwaukie, Oregon www.tammyjowilson.com
Beheaded represents an ongoing frustration with an idealized fictional female body embraced by society and the media. The work is stretched blonde fabric with teal blue figure screen printed on the top corner. The figures head has been cut off and placed in it’s own hand, like an angry child pulling the head off a doll. From the head drips red silk thread that hangs well below the bottom edge the piece. In the lower corner the head with tired eyes acts as the bearer of this violent day dream.
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Faces, Photography, 16 x 20 inches each framed photographs hung in grid, 2012. Online
Tammy Jo Wilson Milwaukie, Oregon www.tammyjowilson.com
This work was created as an exploration of imposed identity and social constructs. Faces, brings into question the understanding of the ambiguous dark skinned female of multiple racial and ethnic heritage. They are all images of the same person but they do not have the same identity. Faces creates questions about how society formulates an identity for each individual to either except or reject. I question and consider how each person’s understanding of them self bends how they connect and relate to those around them.
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February, Fabric and thread, 42 x 73 inches, 2012. Online
Tammy Jo Wilson Milwaukie, Oregon www.tammyjowilson.com
February was created as a representation of African-American’s difficult love-hate relationship with this country. It raises the question, how can a person love the country they were born in when it has a long and continuing history of racism, inequality, and violence against it’s own people? The title February is a reference to black history month and aims to consider embracing the diversity of black identity today well considering it in relationship to and in the context of black history in America.
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Cancer Index, Photograph and oil on panels, 30 x 60 inches , 2011. Online
Diane Zeeuw Grand Rapids, Michigan www.kacad.edu
Within this piece I have juxtaposed a photograph of a woman with a balding head, a culturally significant index of systematic cancer treatment, to painted images of mundane spherical objects including a soccer ball, a baseball, and a globe. By comparing objects sharing a physical symmetry and similarity with the photograph, I was hoping to convey a sense of the profound inadequacy of our visual associations to the lived experience of cancer.
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Make Up Particles #2, Digital photograph , 24 x 36 inches, 2013. Online
Erin Zerbe Adrian, Michigan www.zerbetron.com
This is part of a body of work called DEBRIS, which collects and displays the discarded trash associated with the beauty ritual, offering an opportunity to have a larger conversation about the role of internalized and externalized misogyny, and how these forces often play a deep role in female identity. Collections of discarded make-up wipes, hair, and pubic hair are put on display, allowing viewers to look on in morbid curiosity, recoil in disgust, and question their own culpability in the cultural perception of women’s bodies as both abject and object.
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