ARTIST STATEMENTS: NATIONAL ARTISTS
Phoebe Ackley
Berkeley California
My House
Acrylic
2016
This woman stands in firm knowledge and possession of her home. Anchored by her children, she defies the banksters who would rob her of it. My House is a positive affirmation of the right to our homes. And an indictment of the perverse greed and fraud of the banksters in the ongoing foreclosure crisis.
Susan Ahlfs
Saint Paul Minnesota
Susan Elizabeth Ahlfs
Graphite on paper
2013
My Big Brazen Beauties drawing promotes self acceptance through body acceptance. I use models who have some low self-esteem or a more negative relationship with their own body and present it in a view that showcases their natural beauty. These larger than life drawings forces the model and the viewers to see these bodies empowered while creating the intimacy to view my models as natural, beautiful beings. This series specifically is meant to challenge the social pressures from society of body image and what is beautiful.
MGP Andersen
San Francisco California
My and Those
Oil on canvas
2009
The girl in My and Those is a commodity. The status of women has improved since 1972, but too often we are still just the playthings and servants of men.
Yael Azoulay
Brooklyn New York
Please Break My Heart
Audition for Please Break My Heart
HD video
2016
Please Break My Heart examines the power structure within a relationship. It is seemingly a way of making myself a victim – the result is well known, I am asking to be heartbroken, and therefore my heartbreaker is the one in control of the situation. However, this is my project, I am the one hiring and paying the actor and he has signed a contract saying that within a few weeks he must leave my life forever. It is a way of taking control over my own heart.
Pamela Belknap
San Francisco California
Red Vines: Alway Fat Free
Red Vines, Red Belt
2016
The cherry fragrance stimulated my appetite. The cherry red is a delicious looking color. With a stick of Red Vine, it will be twenty calories each. Without being conscious, I could easily eat the whole box. However, on the package of the Red Vines, it is labeled as ALWAYS FAT FREE. This sculpture is a symbolic object of a woman to stay shapely, yet constantly being tempted by sugar. Sugar is fattening, but the industry has buried the fact.The diet industry manipulates women to retain the culturally favored slim figure.
Tracy Brown
Tucson Arizona
Rabbit Food, The Dummification of Modern Women
Mansplaining, Tell Me Bout It Bout It
Balls
Video Art
2016
Rabbit Food, The Dummification of Modern Women, illustrates pent up anger and aggression over the minimization of women's achievement particularly in film. Far too often in interviews great female performers are asked the lowest common denominator of questions while their male counterparts are handed thought provoking, philosophical and existential questions.
Mansplaining, Tell Me Bout It Bout It, pokes at a cultural phenomenon far too many women are familiar with. The short video bitingly and sarcastically points out the absurdity and stupidity of this sexist mode of operating which is an everyday method of oppressing and maintaining power over woman.
Balls. The repetition of imagery has a real and adverse effect on the human psyche. Consistently sexist, violent, and derogatory images and messages diminish a women's place in society while promoting violence on them; a trend that needs to end.
Ania Catherine & Samira Mahboub
Costa Mesa California
PHASE
2016
“I don’t get it. I’m just worried about you. It’s just a phase.' As gender scholars, queer women, and artists, we decided to call-out the less visible and seemingly innocent discourses that minimize romantic love between women. PHASE finds motivation in our experience of having our relationships trivialized by comments that are considered acceptable, yet in their subtlety are offensive and damaging. The film is a visualization of how being on the receiving end of those comments feels, and the poem is our verbal response.
Sara Cole
San Jose California
Consent 1
Acrylic & Graphite on Paper, Mounted on Canvas
2016
Six years ago, I was raped and beaten by someone I had known for seven years. Then his friend attempted to rape me before I was able to escape running half naked down the street at three in the morning. Watching a United States Presidential candidate, one who has been deemed a batterer, a groper, and possibly a child rapist joke about, condone and encourage assault against women, in 2016, leaves me 100 million thoughts and feelings and then leaves me numb. Consent cannot be bought or forced or taken. I do not consent.
Madelyn Covey
Emeryville California
Pink Skirt
Oil on wallpaper
2016
There is a scarcity of images of female leg hair spanning from the classics of art history to our current visual culture. This perpetuates the oppressive and unrealistic beauty standard of compulsory depilation. The more images of something one sees, the more normalized that thing becomes. I want to use my paintings to normalize female leg hair.
Grace Fechner
Burnsville Minnesota
Her
Acrylic, Cut Paper, Graphite, India Ink Pen on Paper.
2016
Virgin, Whore, and Mother are the categories women have been, and still are, placed into. This perpetuates slut-shaming, as well as places exceptional emphasis on a woman's sexuality in a way that is limiting. In this piece, I reference the women subjects of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s Neoclassical portraiture, oppressive fashion in the form of gut-squishing Victorian corsets, Philipp Otto Runge's Romantic paintings of ideal mornings, current attitudes, and emojis to break through these categories.
Amy Finkbeiner
Brooklyn New York
The Eternal Incantation
The Eternal Incantation is a chanting ritual with accompanying regalia. I use it to focus on--and ostensibly purge--the soundtrack that plays in my mind as I internalize everything that happens to me, either blaming or congratulating myself for random occurrences or other peoples' actions towards me. The soundtrack, and thus the ritual, can fluctuate wildly. My efforts at purging this tendency have been unsuccessful so far; but then again, rituals do operate mysteriously. This futility seems to strike a chord with a great many women.
Dwora Fried
Los Angeles California
Hansel and Gretel
Wooden box, metal, vintage dolls, photograph
2016
My assemblaged mixed media boxes create miniature rooms that reflect the feeling of a woman growing up in the fifties. Yes, i do consider myself to be a feminist, but that lingering feeling of not being taken seriously, of not really mattering, of not being truly equal is hard to get rid of. I communicate that feeling in my art, my daughters are much more powerful and assertive and I am proud to have raised them..
Laura Gelsomini & Susan Duby
Shoemakersville Pennsylvania
Fettered
paper
2016
Our work deals with aspects of the female figure from the perspective of both artist and muse simultaneously. We utilize our own bodies interchangeably as descriptive forms of engagement and connection. Representing self as generic instead of specific, the notion of identity and authorship is challenged and slippage occurs.Restraints inhibit gesture, heightening the desire for release. The gap is bridged between separate and divisive bodily containers of personality and personae, allowing spirit to flow freely.
Brandon Harrell
Church Hill Tennessee
A Not So Androgynous Toy
Copper, Dough, Plastic
2004
Society has this idea that the toys a child plays with will define their gender. I made this penis vagina extruder because play-doh is non gender specific, and I found it a playful way to communicate my idea of how ridiculous this thinking is. Being a non gender conforming queer woman who lived this toy debate as a child it was a piece I felt I was born to make.
Samantha Hofsiss
Huntington Station New York
Dissolve
White latex paint, artist
2016
Identity. I am fascinated by the ability for some to establish a strong independent mentality early in life while others wander through life feeling incomplete. Being a young woman, I continuously observe the growing chasm between the traditional expectancies of a woman. The expectations that were instilled within me as a child, such as the new age of empowerment, and the encouragement that society is slowly understanding the strength of independent women.
Blond Jenny
Long Island City New York
What did we learn?
Pigment Print
2016
What did we learn? Massmedia and society give us so many misleading images of women. They try to force us to be docile and compliant. Women aren't free. We are expected to fit a mold defined by men. I want to show that we are ready to remove our masks, air our sadness and positively support each other.
Kay Kang
San Francisco California 94105
Jungwhan(For the Girls)
acrylic and charcoal embedded in mixture of sand on 70 panels.each panel 6x6x3inch
Gateway
chacoal, hemp rope, rice paper, oil & sand on panel
2004
My works focus on the issue of gender - specifically the naming of female newborns with what are generally considered male names. This informal Korean custom is a reflection of the preference for sons over daughters and is practiced in hopes of a male baby. Though it is not as widely practiced today, its legacy survives among many Korean women who today possess male names.
Daniela Kostova
Brooklyn New York
New Role Models 1
photographic print on archival paper
2015
My work responds to the fluidity of gender in this day and age, and the mode by which one woman capitalizes on androgyny. I complicate the notion of binary (male vs. female, masculine vs. feminine), presenting gender as performance. In my last body of work I photograph my daughter and her babysitter, who also works as an androgynous fashion model for both male and female brands. Describing herself as a “gender capitalist”, the model takes advantage of opportunities given to people based on their perceived sex or gender.
Kellie Krouse
Brooklyn New York
untitled
Glass
2016
follow the rules
Children's Underwear, Rope
2016
As a female in society, childhood is a critical time for navigating how the label of 'female' dictates the rest of your life. This includes an understanding of sexuality as presented by everyday objects. I have found that children's underwear is a hotbed for this very idea. In these pieces I give weight to their content through physical and visual tensions, both literally and through a material translation capturing the range of sexuality placed on the 'panties.'
Liz Leger
Berkeley California
Thank You for Not Breeding
charcoal/graphite on coventry rag paper
2014
If you are a woman or self identified woman your worth in society is measured through your body. The heteronormative power structure effects women in every aspect of life: family, work & the right to choose. Feminists & feminist artists have sought to disrupt & decolonize corporeal politics. Deciding not to enter into parenthood has long been considered a subversive act. Given the forces of consumer baby culture,childhood poverty & overpopulation,not procreating can still be a revolutionary act.
Chanel Matsunami Govreau & LIp J
Evanston Illinois
Midnight Work
Video
2016
Waacking, an urban dance style originally created by Gay men of color, is a form of radical self love that emphasizes the use of pose, facial expression and emotion. Waacking is wildly popular in Asia amongst young women. During the filming of this video the participants call out, scream and direct to create a space of loving and joyful support for the performer to explore sensuality, anger, fear, sluttiness, beauty and self love. Basically to say,” F*ck you, I can love myself and my bitches are here to support me.
Colleen Merrill
Lexington Kentucky 40502
Schism
Manipulated found quilt, linen, silk thread, gourd, cotton rope
2016
Schism is a part of my most recent body of work titled Fawn. The term fawn refers to one still un-weaned or retaining a distinctive baby coat. The anthropomorphic figure scrutinizes the interdependent and maternal role of myself as partner and mother. Schism deals the continual opposing feelings that result from domesticity. These challenges range anywhere from fulfilling the normative gender role for each parent to the ability to have a sexually gratifying relationship with your partner after having a child.
Rachel ODonnell
Los Angeles California
I'll Eat You!
Acrylic Paint on Magazine (Teen Vogue)
2016
Bury Me Deep
Acrylic Paint + Oil Paint markers on Nylon 1960s Slip
2016
Sexuality, femininity and violence all clash in my newest series, Femme Fatales. Inspired by the art of old pulp fiction novels, these pieces utilize ‘titles’ filled with double meaning. Behind the feigned femininity lurks a truer monster, much more powerful and fearsome than the oppressive world she operates in.
Patricia Olson
St. Paul Minnesota
Self-Portrait at 60 [after Beckmann]
oil on panel
2011
Self-Portrait at 60 is based on Max Beckmann’s "Self-Portrait in Tuxedo." Beckmann paints a confident but guarded presentation of the modern artist – at this time in history defined as exclusively male. This painting transposes the gender of the artist, to project this male presentation of self and power via an aging women’s body, at turns surprising, empowering, pathetic. Where Beckmann holds a cigarette, this figure holds a tampon, symbolizing femaleness and, after menopause, the loss of fertility and traditional female power.
Jessi Presley-Grusin
San Francisco California
It Becomes Her
book board, stonehenge cream paper, ink
2016
It Becomes Her is a book about the removal of female pubic hair, often due to societal pressures and expectations of appearance. Its intention was to examine why we may choose to alter our bodies in this way, and to change some of our reasons for doing so—to make room for choice: choosing to play, to experiment with your hair (or lack thereof), choosing to do what feels right for you. To embrace your body as it is or as you make it, both can be forms of radical self-love—a “f*ck you,” if you will, “in the most loving way.'
Nancy Roy-Meyer
Oroville California
Women Laughing at Salad
Acrylic on unstretched canvas, feathers, wood, glitter, rhinestones, and kitsch embellishments
2014
I stand before cake contemplating its meaning as if it is the most pressing issue of our time. In response to a weight phobic American culture that encourages fat shaming as ones civic duty, I celebrate abundance as an alternative to the policing of a restrictive and regulated lean existence. From an obese woman’s perspective who is pathologized and marginalized by society I question, what is beauty, who and what is grotesque?
Zona Sage
Oakland California
The Good Old Days?
Vintage crazy quilt fragments, silk, photo transfer, beads, embroidery, handkerchief
2010
When people speak of nostalgia for "the good old days" or "making America great again" they usually have a very narrow vision of who is included and ignore the realities for many segments of society, and women in particular. This small piece invites the viewer in. Upon closer inspection, the embroidery reveals its true sentiments: "Contraception is illegal," "I am my husband's property," and "I cannot vote." Hidden under the handkerchief is embroidered, "I am a lesbian."
Lucy Sexton
Vero Beach Florida
When you period blood all over
dollhouse objects, menstruation blood, and existing data from user generated social media sites
2015
Patriarchy still whispers in the lives of everyday women. I am politely reminded that some things are best left unsaid and unseen, like my period. This work explores the ways in the act of 'playing' can subvert shame. Additionally, how the Internet and User Generated social media platforms provide the opportunity for women to cope with the shame inscribed on their bodies'. This performance and production of 'self' on social media sites is an opportunity for women to understand and reclaim their identities' and bodies'.
Judy Shintani
El Granada California
Mary's Power
found objects, mixed media
2004
Rarely do we honor the women who labor to support families, allowing future generations to thrive. This is a portrait of my Grandmother, a devout Christian and very proper, strong woman. When my Grandfather was imprisoned in Hawaii during WWII for being a Japanese American community leader, she became the sole breadwinner, supporting her family by ironing and taking in laundry. The sharpness of the dowels reflects her vigor and prickliness, and my reaction to the unjust, racist actions of the US government towards its citizens.
Dafna Steinberg
Washington Dist of Columbia
Bang
mixed paper collage, screen shot Tinder conversation, wooden frame
2016
This project stems from my own personal experience using the dating app Tinder. Using real messages from the app, it examines the differences between the superficial hopes of romantic love, the stark reality found on dating sites and trying to reconcile the two while combating the misogyny of “hook up” culture. It explores how anonymity and the app’s perceived promise of sexual encounters allow men to treat women as objects meant to satisfy their needs. I also include my own voice pushing back, through wit and irony, against the sexual intrusions.
Rebecca Sutton
Brooklyn New York
You Won't Kiss These Rotten Lips
watercolor on paper
2015
The Blood and the Cause to Bleed
watercolor on paper
2014
Women are constantly depicted nude in art, but rarely for our own purposes. We are depicted with our blemishes smoothed over to look nice for the viewer. I am not interested in that. I want to create a world where women are the exact creatures they are in life but without the societal constraints that restrict us, consciously or unconsciously. The world of the women I depict has no environment, it's just them and their thoughts and their ideas and their feelings, uninhibited.
Rhonda Thomas Urdang
Flagstaff Arizona
Temple of the Virgins
Focusing on the conventions of marriage, virginity, housewifery, and incidents that are womanly and feminine -- I've revisited Womanhouse 45 years later. Womyn have been the keepers of everyone's sugarcoated skeletons in the cupboard, including our own. F*ck U is my prayer of contempt. No other reaction is appropriate when reprehensible deeds have ensued. My assemblage depicts my story of molestation and sexual assault as a 3 year old child by my maternal Uncle, a retired evangelical minister who resides in California.
Wendy Tigchelaar
Sayville New York
Still Holding Up- Womanhousevessel
cardboard,paint, thread
2016
Why are women so often still the caretakers and connectors of the world? How do we communicate with others, both directly and indirectly, about the roles we are willing to assume? How often do we say yes when we mean no, ignore our internal truths, follow paths that are not ours? How do we confine ourselves, and how can we live differently? What do we need to do in order to take our places with more power and to promote this for others, too?
Marcela Torres
Chicago Illinois
Arbitrary Selection
Ipad and mounted box
2015
Arbitrary Selection is a re-creation of a racial violent act that has been historically practiced in the U.S as late as 1998 (r.i.p. James Byrd, Jr). The film is 4m played on a ipad with a customized app that interrupts the viewer from watching.
Teddi Tostanoski
Campbell California
Sexual Fear
Inkjet Print
2016
This body of work addresses many issues regarding woman's bodily function issues and how women handle and feel about these issues. Having my own uterine problems that are heightened during ovulation, I have found how not only how society views abnormal uterine and vaginal issues, but how regular menstruation is perceived.
Cate White
Oakland California
Christmas Prison Visit
acrylic, house paint on wood panel
2015
This painting depicts a photo from a Christmas visit a friend and I paid to a third friend doing time in a Louisiana prison. I stood between them for the photo as the woman usually does, acting as both focal point and placeholder. I am interested in what the naked female body provokes when its role or social position is unclear: Ally or object? Soldier or spoils of war? And who decides what her body “means?” Me or the viewer? As with most of my work, I am interested in confusing the language and symbols of power.
Leisel Whitlock
San Leandro, California
genesis 1:1 the re-education of Eve (my answers may not be your answers)
social practice art
Undated
Self-love is learned. And for those who exist outside the margins of the “white” (male, hetero-normative young, thin and rich)ideal, it is learned in the process of rejecting messages that you are not sacred or of significant value. But what is to be done when some of those lessons are inadvertently taught by those who are most dear and then reinforced by oneself? With this piece the participant/viewer is asked to consider five questions and leave a note if so inclined. Comments will be compiled for online Feb. 2017 viewing.
Joni Wildman
Brooklyn New York
Mary in the Outhouse
colored pencil on paper
2015
Mary in the Outhouse is a work of colored pencil on paper that mocks the social practice of breastfeeding in public restrooms to avoid the dirty looks of embarrassed patrons and staff. This piece is a part of a series of self-portraits of the artist as Mary who had a little lamb, but did not necessarily want one. Mary feeds her lambs in the outhouse, with a twisted version of her rhyme scrawled on the wall behind her.
Berkeley California
My House
Acrylic
2016
This woman stands in firm knowledge and possession of her home. Anchored by her children, she defies the banksters who would rob her of it. My House is a positive affirmation of the right to our homes. And an indictment of the perverse greed and fraud of the banksters in the ongoing foreclosure crisis.
Susan Ahlfs
Saint Paul Minnesota
Susan Elizabeth Ahlfs
Graphite on paper
2013
My Big Brazen Beauties drawing promotes self acceptance through body acceptance. I use models who have some low self-esteem or a more negative relationship with their own body and present it in a view that showcases their natural beauty. These larger than life drawings forces the model and the viewers to see these bodies empowered while creating the intimacy to view my models as natural, beautiful beings. This series specifically is meant to challenge the social pressures from society of body image and what is beautiful.
MGP Andersen
San Francisco California
My and Those
Oil on canvas
2009
The girl in My and Those is a commodity. The status of women has improved since 1972, but too often we are still just the playthings and servants of men.
Yael Azoulay
Brooklyn New York
Please Break My Heart
Audition for Please Break My Heart
HD video
2016
Please Break My Heart examines the power structure within a relationship. It is seemingly a way of making myself a victim – the result is well known, I am asking to be heartbroken, and therefore my heartbreaker is the one in control of the situation. However, this is my project, I am the one hiring and paying the actor and he has signed a contract saying that within a few weeks he must leave my life forever. It is a way of taking control over my own heart.
Pamela Belknap
San Francisco California
Red Vines: Alway Fat Free
Red Vines, Red Belt
2016
The cherry fragrance stimulated my appetite. The cherry red is a delicious looking color. With a stick of Red Vine, it will be twenty calories each. Without being conscious, I could easily eat the whole box. However, on the package of the Red Vines, it is labeled as ALWAYS FAT FREE. This sculpture is a symbolic object of a woman to stay shapely, yet constantly being tempted by sugar. Sugar is fattening, but the industry has buried the fact.The diet industry manipulates women to retain the culturally favored slim figure.
Tracy Brown
Tucson Arizona
Rabbit Food, The Dummification of Modern Women
Mansplaining, Tell Me Bout It Bout It
Balls
Video Art
2016
Rabbit Food, The Dummification of Modern Women, illustrates pent up anger and aggression over the minimization of women's achievement particularly in film. Far too often in interviews great female performers are asked the lowest common denominator of questions while their male counterparts are handed thought provoking, philosophical and existential questions.
Mansplaining, Tell Me Bout It Bout It, pokes at a cultural phenomenon far too many women are familiar with. The short video bitingly and sarcastically points out the absurdity and stupidity of this sexist mode of operating which is an everyday method of oppressing and maintaining power over woman.
Balls. The repetition of imagery has a real and adverse effect on the human psyche. Consistently sexist, violent, and derogatory images and messages diminish a women's place in society while promoting violence on them; a trend that needs to end.
Ania Catherine & Samira Mahboub
Costa Mesa California
PHASE
2016
“I don’t get it. I’m just worried about you. It’s just a phase.' As gender scholars, queer women, and artists, we decided to call-out the less visible and seemingly innocent discourses that minimize romantic love between women. PHASE finds motivation in our experience of having our relationships trivialized by comments that are considered acceptable, yet in their subtlety are offensive and damaging. The film is a visualization of how being on the receiving end of those comments feels, and the poem is our verbal response.
Sara Cole
San Jose California
Consent 1
Acrylic & Graphite on Paper, Mounted on Canvas
2016
Six years ago, I was raped and beaten by someone I had known for seven years. Then his friend attempted to rape me before I was able to escape running half naked down the street at three in the morning. Watching a United States Presidential candidate, one who has been deemed a batterer, a groper, and possibly a child rapist joke about, condone and encourage assault against women, in 2016, leaves me 100 million thoughts and feelings and then leaves me numb. Consent cannot be bought or forced or taken. I do not consent.
Madelyn Covey
Emeryville California
Pink Skirt
Oil on wallpaper
2016
There is a scarcity of images of female leg hair spanning from the classics of art history to our current visual culture. This perpetuates the oppressive and unrealistic beauty standard of compulsory depilation. The more images of something one sees, the more normalized that thing becomes. I want to use my paintings to normalize female leg hair.
Grace Fechner
Burnsville Minnesota
Her
Acrylic, Cut Paper, Graphite, India Ink Pen on Paper.
2016
Virgin, Whore, and Mother are the categories women have been, and still are, placed into. This perpetuates slut-shaming, as well as places exceptional emphasis on a woman's sexuality in a way that is limiting. In this piece, I reference the women subjects of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s Neoclassical portraiture, oppressive fashion in the form of gut-squishing Victorian corsets, Philipp Otto Runge's Romantic paintings of ideal mornings, current attitudes, and emojis to break through these categories.
Amy Finkbeiner
Brooklyn New York
The Eternal Incantation
The Eternal Incantation is a chanting ritual with accompanying regalia. I use it to focus on--and ostensibly purge--the soundtrack that plays in my mind as I internalize everything that happens to me, either blaming or congratulating myself for random occurrences or other peoples' actions towards me. The soundtrack, and thus the ritual, can fluctuate wildly. My efforts at purging this tendency have been unsuccessful so far; but then again, rituals do operate mysteriously. This futility seems to strike a chord with a great many women.
Dwora Fried
Los Angeles California
Hansel and Gretel
Wooden box, metal, vintage dolls, photograph
2016
My assemblaged mixed media boxes create miniature rooms that reflect the feeling of a woman growing up in the fifties. Yes, i do consider myself to be a feminist, but that lingering feeling of not being taken seriously, of not really mattering, of not being truly equal is hard to get rid of. I communicate that feeling in my art, my daughters are much more powerful and assertive and I am proud to have raised them..
Laura Gelsomini & Susan Duby
Shoemakersville Pennsylvania
Fettered
paper
2016
Our work deals with aspects of the female figure from the perspective of both artist and muse simultaneously. We utilize our own bodies interchangeably as descriptive forms of engagement and connection. Representing self as generic instead of specific, the notion of identity and authorship is challenged and slippage occurs.Restraints inhibit gesture, heightening the desire for release. The gap is bridged between separate and divisive bodily containers of personality and personae, allowing spirit to flow freely.
Brandon Harrell
Church Hill Tennessee
A Not So Androgynous Toy
Copper, Dough, Plastic
2004
Society has this idea that the toys a child plays with will define their gender. I made this penis vagina extruder because play-doh is non gender specific, and I found it a playful way to communicate my idea of how ridiculous this thinking is. Being a non gender conforming queer woman who lived this toy debate as a child it was a piece I felt I was born to make.
Samantha Hofsiss
Huntington Station New York
Dissolve
White latex paint, artist
2016
Identity. I am fascinated by the ability for some to establish a strong independent mentality early in life while others wander through life feeling incomplete. Being a young woman, I continuously observe the growing chasm between the traditional expectancies of a woman. The expectations that were instilled within me as a child, such as the new age of empowerment, and the encouragement that society is slowly understanding the strength of independent women.
Blond Jenny
Long Island City New York
What did we learn?
Pigment Print
2016
What did we learn? Massmedia and society give us so many misleading images of women. They try to force us to be docile and compliant. Women aren't free. We are expected to fit a mold defined by men. I want to show that we are ready to remove our masks, air our sadness and positively support each other.
Kay Kang
San Francisco California 94105
Jungwhan(For the Girls)
acrylic and charcoal embedded in mixture of sand on 70 panels.each panel 6x6x3inch
Gateway
chacoal, hemp rope, rice paper, oil & sand on panel
2004
My works focus on the issue of gender - specifically the naming of female newborns with what are generally considered male names. This informal Korean custom is a reflection of the preference for sons over daughters and is practiced in hopes of a male baby. Though it is not as widely practiced today, its legacy survives among many Korean women who today possess male names.
Daniela Kostova
Brooklyn New York
New Role Models 1
photographic print on archival paper
2015
My work responds to the fluidity of gender in this day and age, and the mode by which one woman capitalizes on androgyny. I complicate the notion of binary (male vs. female, masculine vs. feminine), presenting gender as performance. In my last body of work I photograph my daughter and her babysitter, who also works as an androgynous fashion model for both male and female brands. Describing herself as a “gender capitalist”, the model takes advantage of opportunities given to people based on their perceived sex or gender.
Kellie Krouse
Brooklyn New York
untitled
Glass
2016
follow the rules
Children's Underwear, Rope
2016
As a female in society, childhood is a critical time for navigating how the label of 'female' dictates the rest of your life. This includes an understanding of sexuality as presented by everyday objects. I have found that children's underwear is a hotbed for this very idea. In these pieces I give weight to their content through physical and visual tensions, both literally and through a material translation capturing the range of sexuality placed on the 'panties.'
Liz Leger
Berkeley California
Thank You for Not Breeding
charcoal/graphite on coventry rag paper
2014
If you are a woman or self identified woman your worth in society is measured through your body. The heteronormative power structure effects women in every aspect of life: family, work & the right to choose. Feminists & feminist artists have sought to disrupt & decolonize corporeal politics. Deciding not to enter into parenthood has long been considered a subversive act. Given the forces of consumer baby culture,childhood poverty & overpopulation,not procreating can still be a revolutionary act.
Chanel Matsunami Govreau & LIp J
Evanston Illinois
Midnight Work
Video
2016
Waacking, an urban dance style originally created by Gay men of color, is a form of radical self love that emphasizes the use of pose, facial expression and emotion. Waacking is wildly popular in Asia amongst young women. During the filming of this video the participants call out, scream and direct to create a space of loving and joyful support for the performer to explore sensuality, anger, fear, sluttiness, beauty and self love. Basically to say,” F*ck you, I can love myself and my bitches are here to support me.
Colleen Merrill
Lexington Kentucky 40502
Schism
Manipulated found quilt, linen, silk thread, gourd, cotton rope
2016
Schism is a part of my most recent body of work titled Fawn. The term fawn refers to one still un-weaned or retaining a distinctive baby coat. The anthropomorphic figure scrutinizes the interdependent and maternal role of myself as partner and mother. Schism deals the continual opposing feelings that result from domesticity. These challenges range anywhere from fulfilling the normative gender role for each parent to the ability to have a sexually gratifying relationship with your partner after having a child.
Rachel ODonnell
Los Angeles California
I'll Eat You!
Acrylic Paint on Magazine (Teen Vogue)
2016
Bury Me Deep
Acrylic Paint + Oil Paint markers on Nylon 1960s Slip
2016
Sexuality, femininity and violence all clash in my newest series, Femme Fatales. Inspired by the art of old pulp fiction novels, these pieces utilize ‘titles’ filled with double meaning. Behind the feigned femininity lurks a truer monster, much more powerful and fearsome than the oppressive world she operates in.
Patricia Olson
St. Paul Minnesota
Self-Portrait at 60 [after Beckmann]
oil on panel
2011
Self-Portrait at 60 is based on Max Beckmann’s "Self-Portrait in Tuxedo." Beckmann paints a confident but guarded presentation of the modern artist – at this time in history defined as exclusively male. This painting transposes the gender of the artist, to project this male presentation of self and power via an aging women’s body, at turns surprising, empowering, pathetic. Where Beckmann holds a cigarette, this figure holds a tampon, symbolizing femaleness and, after menopause, the loss of fertility and traditional female power.
Jessi Presley-Grusin
San Francisco California
It Becomes Her
book board, stonehenge cream paper, ink
2016
It Becomes Her is a book about the removal of female pubic hair, often due to societal pressures and expectations of appearance. Its intention was to examine why we may choose to alter our bodies in this way, and to change some of our reasons for doing so—to make room for choice: choosing to play, to experiment with your hair (or lack thereof), choosing to do what feels right for you. To embrace your body as it is or as you make it, both can be forms of radical self-love—a “f*ck you,” if you will, “in the most loving way.'
Nancy Roy-Meyer
Oroville California
Women Laughing at Salad
Acrylic on unstretched canvas, feathers, wood, glitter, rhinestones, and kitsch embellishments
2014
I stand before cake contemplating its meaning as if it is the most pressing issue of our time. In response to a weight phobic American culture that encourages fat shaming as ones civic duty, I celebrate abundance as an alternative to the policing of a restrictive and regulated lean existence. From an obese woman’s perspective who is pathologized and marginalized by society I question, what is beauty, who and what is grotesque?
Zona Sage
Oakland California
The Good Old Days?
Vintage crazy quilt fragments, silk, photo transfer, beads, embroidery, handkerchief
2010
When people speak of nostalgia for "the good old days" or "making America great again" they usually have a very narrow vision of who is included and ignore the realities for many segments of society, and women in particular. This small piece invites the viewer in. Upon closer inspection, the embroidery reveals its true sentiments: "Contraception is illegal," "I am my husband's property," and "I cannot vote." Hidden under the handkerchief is embroidered, "I am a lesbian."
Lucy Sexton
Vero Beach Florida
When you period blood all over
dollhouse objects, menstruation blood, and existing data from user generated social media sites
2015
Patriarchy still whispers in the lives of everyday women. I am politely reminded that some things are best left unsaid and unseen, like my period. This work explores the ways in the act of 'playing' can subvert shame. Additionally, how the Internet and User Generated social media platforms provide the opportunity for women to cope with the shame inscribed on their bodies'. This performance and production of 'self' on social media sites is an opportunity for women to understand and reclaim their identities' and bodies'.
Judy Shintani
El Granada California
Mary's Power
found objects, mixed media
2004
Rarely do we honor the women who labor to support families, allowing future generations to thrive. This is a portrait of my Grandmother, a devout Christian and very proper, strong woman. When my Grandfather was imprisoned in Hawaii during WWII for being a Japanese American community leader, she became the sole breadwinner, supporting her family by ironing and taking in laundry. The sharpness of the dowels reflects her vigor and prickliness, and my reaction to the unjust, racist actions of the US government towards its citizens.
Dafna Steinberg
Washington Dist of Columbia
Bang
mixed paper collage, screen shot Tinder conversation, wooden frame
2016
This project stems from my own personal experience using the dating app Tinder. Using real messages from the app, it examines the differences between the superficial hopes of romantic love, the stark reality found on dating sites and trying to reconcile the two while combating the misogyny of “hook up” culture. It explores how anonymity and the app’s perceived promise of sexual encounters allow men to treat women as objects meant to satisfy their needs. I also include my own voice pushing back, through wit and irony, against the sexual intrusions.
Rebecca Sutton
Brooklyn New York
You Won't Kiss These Rotten Lips
watercolor on paper
2015
The Blood and the Cause to Bleed
watercolor on paper
2014
Women are constantly depicted nude in art, but rarely for our own purposes. We are depicted with our blemishes smoothed over to look nice for the viewer. I am not interested in that. I want to create a world where women are the exact creatures they are in life but without the societal constraints that restrict us, consciously or unconsciously. The world of the women I depict has no environment, it's just them and their thoughts and their ideas and their feelings, uninhibited.
Rhonda Thomas Urdang
Flagstaff Arizona
Temple of the Virgins
Focusing on the conventions of marriage, virginity, housewifery, and incidents that are womanly and feminine -- I've revisited Womanhouse 45 years later. Womyn have been the keepers of everyone's sugarcoated skeletons in the cupboard, including our own. F*ck U is my prayer of contempt. No other reaction is appropriate when reprehensible deeds have ensued. My assemblage depicts my story of molestation and sexual assault as a 3 year old child by my maternal Uncle, a retired evangelical minister who resides in California.
Wendy Tigchelaar
Sayville New York
Still Holding Up- Womanhousevessel
cardboard,paint, thread
2016
Why are women so often still the caretakers and connectors of the world? How do we communicate with others, both directly and indirectly, about the roles we are willing to assume? How often do we say yes when we mean no, ignore our internal truths, follow paths that are not ours? How do we confine ourselves, and how can we live differently? What do we need to do in order to take our places with more power and to promote this for others, too?
Marcela Torres
Chicago Illinois
Arbitrary Selection
Ipad and mounted box
2015
Arbitrary Selection is a re-creation of a racial violent act that has been historically practiced in the U.S as late as 1998 (r.i.p. James Byrd, Jr). The film is 4m played on a ipad with a customized app that interrupts the viewer from watching.
Teddi Tostanoski
Campbell California
Sexual Fear
Inkjet Print
2016
This body of work addresses many issues regarding woman's bodily function issues and how women handle and feel about these issues. Having my own uterine problems that are heightened during ovulation, I have found how not only how society views abnormal uterine and vaginal issues, but how regular menstruation is perceived.
Cate White
Oakland California
Christmas Prison Visit
acrylic, house paint on wood panel
2015
This painting depicts a photo from a Christmas visit a friend and I paid to a third friend doing time in a Louisiana prison. I stood between them for the photo as the woman usually does, acting as both focal point and placeholder. I am interested in what the naked female body provokes when its role or social position is unclear: Ally or object? Soldier or spoils of war? And who decides what her body “means?” Me or the viewer? As with most of my work, I am interested in confusing the language and symbols of power.
Leisel Whitlock
San Leandro, California
genesis 1:1 the re-education of Eve (my answers may not be your answers)
social practice art
Undated
Self-love is learned. And for those who exist outside the margins of the “white” (male, hetero-normative young, thin and rich)ideal, it is learned in the process of rejecting messages that you are not sacred or of significant value. But what is to be done when some of those lessons are inadvertently taught by those who are most dear and then reinforced by oneself? With this piece the participant/viewer is asked to consider five questions and leave a note if so inclined. Comments will be compiled for online Feb. 2017 viewing.
Joni Wildman
Brooklyn New York
Mary in the Outhouse
colored pencil on paper
2015
Mary in the Outhouse is a work of colored pencil on paper that mocks the social practice of breastfeeding in public restrooms to avoid the dirty looks of embarrassed patrons and staff. This piece is a part of a series of self-portraits of the artist as Mary who had a little lamb, but did not necessarily want one. Mary feeds her lambs in the outhouse, with a twisted version of her rhyme scrawled on the wall behind her.
