BODIES

A pop up virtual art exhibition featuring works that celebrate the body from multiple points of view. One or many, defined or silhouette, realistic or conceptual, all types of human bodies are valid. Disabled bodies, trans bodies, fat bodies; all bodies are being celebrated in this space.

Exhibiting Artists: A. Laura Brody, Katherine Chudy, Bethany Grabert, Carrie Hill, Crystalyn Hutchens, Rozali Mascuri, Jack Page, Carly Riegger, Anesha Ross, AJ Schnettler, Ken Schuck, Emily Tironi, Efrat Vaknin, Ruby Vartan

Curated by Aleatha Lindsay

Exhibition will be on view till July 9th.

Screen-recording and snapshots is prohibited.
All images are protected by copyright law and belong to exhibiting artists.

Make a donation here.

Efrat Vaknin
Sex & Disability\S7D Series #3

IKOUII ARTIST A. Laura Brody sculpts for the human body and its vehicles. She developed and curates Opulent Mobility, a series of exhibits that re-imagine disability as opulent and powerful. Her art has been shown at the Ikouii Creative, ACE/121 Gallery, Brea Gallery, the Charles River Museum of Industry, Westbeth Center For the Arts, California State University Northridge, Gallery Expo, the Dora Stern Gallery at Arts Unbound, and The World of Wearable Art. Ms. Brody works as a professional costume maker and designer, an artist, and as an educator. She is passionate about reuse, sustainability, and re-imagining disability.

Melusine is a fairy that saved a man after he had accidentally killed the king. She promised him a great kingdom and many fine children if he would only leave her alone on Saturdays. She lived up to her promise and he did not, spying on her in her bath to see her lower body turned to fish or serpent tails. When he finally confronted her, she grew wings and flew away, leaving him to die in obscurity. My version of Melusine is about auto-immune disease, female autonomy, and emotional labor. Melusine has a spine of thyroid supplement bottles and is stuffed with plastic waste shoved into an armature of wire and used cartons. Her base is covered with remnant and reused textiles and notions. She is in process and is only built up through her torso. The final piece may reach up to 12’ tall.

Kat Chudy (they/them) is a disabled queer American artist currently living and working in Florida. They grew up the child of military parents, traveling extensively throughout the United States during their childhood and continue to travel frequently whenever they can. They have been to 29 states and have visited Mexico, Brazil, and Canada. Chudy has lived in the southwest for more than 20 years and was forced to leave during the pandemic in search of better, more equitable health care. They have an extensive educational background in both art and science and seek to find the edge where the two disciplines meet and inform one another through the subject of their work – invisible disability. Chudy is an advocate for disability rights, healthcare rights, and educational reform.

I make work, write, and run a podcast called DIY Access that focuses on novel solutions to longstanding issues of inaccessibility. My art practice finds beautiful and dignified ways to show the invisible parts of being disabled. It is honest without veering into the murky waters of trauma porn and shows joy and optimism without becoming another artifact of toxic positivity. The work spans many mediums including printmaking, photography, painting, and fiber art – most of the pieces ending up in conversation with one another when installed. Each medium is just as important as the idea being put into it, the form being another facet of communication that holds its own meaning. Democratic means of production are heavily favored, showing both the industrial application to the individual and how this mechanical reproduction can serve our liberation.

Growing up in South Louisiana, Bethany Grabert began studying art at a young age with a local Cajun painter. She always found solace in creating something with her hands and art has been her one constant throughout her life. Prior to pursuing her graduate degree at Georgia State University, She received a BFA with a focus in ceramic sculpture, at Nicholls State University. She is influenced by both her personal experiences and the sociopolitical history of identity, religion, domestic spaces, abuse, and reproductive health. Her artwork has been exhibited in cities across the United States including New Orleans, New York City, Rochester, Minneapolis, Atlanta and Tampa.

In my most recent body of work I explore the multitude of physical reactions and emotions that result when a body lives in pain. I draw my inspiration from my own chronic disease, endometriosis, and from all the people who are stigmatized for living with invisible chronic pain conditions. My work shows the invisible interior experience of extreme pain that can isolate a person from the world and leave them feeling disconnected from their own physical body. I am inspired by the duality of my own experiences in the home and outside of it. My home has been a place where I have found comfort in putting down my performance of appearing well. Often in social settings or in the presence of a doctor it is fundamental to act accordingly, to avoid social and medical ostracization. To be taken seriously when you have a condition that carries stigma is to choose what parts of you to allow other people to see. My work shows the anger felt when I have experienced isolation due to unrelatability to others and neglect from doctors due to stigma around medical treatment and lack of research on issues relating directly to people who are born with a uterus. My work shows the constant state of fatigue making it hard to perform simple everyday tasks and the destabilizing effect of your body failing you.

Carrie Hill (b. 1986, they/them) is a trans non-binary lens-based artist and uninvited settler in the ancestral and traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh people of Turtle Island. Originally from a small town on Snuneymuxw territory, they hold a Master’s in Applied Linguistics from the University of Victoria. They are an entirely self-taught analog and digital photographer.

Specializing in narrative and documentary-style photography, Carrie primarily focuses on themes around marginalization including trauma, mental illness, sex work, poverty, disability, and more. Their imagery is diaristic in nature and evocative, using an intentional yet subtle perspective to maximize both the intended message and its impact.

Documenting the human experience has been a way for Carrie to give themself permission to connect to other human beings, to integrate these truths into their existing worldview, and to preserve significant, unacknowledged moments of humanity across the spectrums of behaviour, marginalization, desire, and choice.

My piece “Exhaustion” is a self-portrait of an acute anxiety attack shown in real-time. This image explores isolation, dissociation, overwhelm, despair, and drug use, all within the context of trying to manage mental illness, disability, and life in a cisgendered, heteronormative, ableist world–a world that perceives anything in deviation from neurotypical, able-bodied, and heterosexual as “other,” “unworthy,” and “disposable.” It’s unjust that lives like mine are frequently erased. I created “Exhaustion” because neurodivergent people like me exist. Our experiences are just as diverse, complex, and valuable as anyone else’s. Here is how I exist and navigate the world. Thank you for experiencing it with me.

Crystalyn Hutchens is a contemporary semi-realistic artist working and living out of Ohio. Her work has been exhibited in multiple regional and national juried exhibitions and recognized internationally with the Eco-Aware Art Gallery in India. She has been awarded Best in Show at the Now Ohio Exhibition at the Dorothy Uber Bryan Gallery at Bowling Green State University in 2021. In addition, she received the Inaugural Marian Treger Fellowship for Enduring Creativity from the Virginia Center of Creative Arts in 2022. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ohio University in 2015 and her Master’s degree in Fine Art studies at Eastern Illinois University in 2019. Recently, she completed her Master of Fine Arts Degree in 2D Studies at Bowling Green State University in 2022.

This current body of work brings attention to individuals in the chronically ill and disabled communities who experience invisible disabilities. Using the female body within her paintings and drawings, she longs to create a language about the experience of the unseen struggles inflicted upon the body from a female perspective. She strives to make work that can be visually read by all of audiences to start a dialogue of understanding, empathy, and connection.

Rozali Mascuri is a collage and mixed media artist from Singapore.

Images of different bodies sourced from magazines

Jack Page is an interdisciplinary visual and performance conceptual artist. Page lives and works on the unceded, sacred, and currently colonized ancestral territory of the Coast Salish peoples, in particular the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ílwəta? (Tsleil-Waututh) nations. Jack Page successfully completed an BFA in Critical and Cultural Practice from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2012. From 2012 to 2015, Page pursued a MA in Cultural Studies and Critical Theory from McMaster University pursuing research in Disability Theory, science fiction, and Techno-culture. Unfortunately, Jack had to leave their Grad Studies, on good standing. They left not only due to their arthritis worsening, severely affecting hands and chronic pain, but also transphobic healthcare impairing their ability to physically function due to lack of necessary medication preventing the degeneration of their deformative arthritis. They identify as a trans-masculine, queer, physically disabled, chronically ill, mad psychiatric consumer, and survivor.

BEFORE/AFTER is a pencil and charcoal black and white self portrait showing fragments of my body at different stages of my life. The work shows my hands, my right foot, my arms, face, and back as well as a winding grassy path below the floating body fragments. BEFORE/AFTER is exemplary of my work, as a self-portrait revealing parts of my body that have been altered and deformed by psoriatic arthritis mutilans and my hair and face prior to transitioning from female to male. My embodiment and identity greatly inform my art practice. I focus on the body, identity, and my and others’ private lived experiences as physically marginalized and trans/formative bodies. My aim is to tell my story and help others tell theirs. With our self-representation, we drive change and challenge hegemony to reclaim our bodies and our human rights.

Carly Riegger (they/them) is a chronically ill and disabled artist from Ann Arbor, Michigan where they took a strong interest in ceramics in high school. They attended Bowling Green State University and graduated in 2020 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree with a specialization in Ceramics. During their junior year, they studied abroad at Studio Arts International College (SACI) in Florence, Italy. Carly’s artwork has been featured at Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati OH, Philly Art Collective in Philadelphia, PA, and Houseguest Gallery in Louisville, KY. Their writing was featured in a large installation in Grand Rapids, MI called My Dearest Friends Project, which was created by Oaklee Thiele. Carly is currently finishing a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Ceramics at Indiana University Southeast. In 2021, they put together their first Solo Exhibition called Invisible Test Subject. Carly is dedicated to continuing their artwork to advocate for those with disabilities.

I create my artwork in response to my experiences with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS) which has been ongoing for ten years. I am in constant, severe, widespread pain that often debilitate my life. My work is created to document, preserve, and express my inner turmoil and disability. I use ceramics to make my invisible experiences an undeniable physical reality. Clay is fired and can last for decades. In contrast, I use fiber to portray the delicate, impermanent state of ill bodies. Fiber can very closely relate to internal tissue such as muscle; it can become loose or tight with tension. My work exists to connect with people experiencing pain while showing the importance of disability for all people. Through my eyes, pain is about the constant cycle of destruction and recreation. I restitch, sew, and mend myself back together to heal, reclaim my body, and reform my sense of self.

Anesha Ross is an Atlanta-based painter and illustrator. She has over a decade of experience with wet mediums such as acrylic and water-based paint. Her favorite topics to explore include Pop-surrealism, 70s’ aesthetics, and dystopian reality. Ross’ mission is to create works that tap into the liminal spaces of the mind. Her inspiration comes from artists such as Madoka Kinoshita and Camilla D’errico, both known for their pop-surrealist works.

“You Can’t Know Me” – featuring the exposed voluptuous body of the subject, while the eyes, that have been marked in red, conceal their identity. As if to say, “You can look at my body as much as you want, but you can’t know me because you cannot see into my soul.”

AJ Schnettler is a nonbinary, multiethnic photographer and printmaker born and raised on the South Shore of Long Island. They have since found their new home, settling in Oakland, California. They grew up in a very conservative family. To get a new, unbiased perspective on life and education, they moved to the West Coast to pursue their Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. They received their degree in Photography with a minor in Printmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2019.

Their work is based around what one does to provide self-acceptance and comfort. Working through identity and the space surrounding them; how to feel at peace overcoming negative, social, and cultural pressure. Their most recent work discusses mental health such as anxiety, body dysmorphia, and social standards. They are most known for their work “The They/Them Project”, although it has had a few name changes over the years. All of their photographic work is aimed to help the audience; whether that be helping someone with their own gender identity, giving someone the validation, they need about themselves, or helping those who cannot relate to us understand our perspective.

Ken Schuck is an artist living in Louisville Kentucky. In 2016, Ken Schuck received his BFA from The Kentucky College of Art + Design at Spalding University. Currently, Schuck is on track to graduate from the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary with a Masters of Divinity (MDiv) in the spring of 2022. His work investigates space and form, “I-it” vs “I-Thou” relationships, and the difference between “nude” and “naked.”

All the images presented are paintings done in likeness of my own body. My body is the result of two puberty, one primarily through estrogen and the other lead by testosterone. My body is difficult to categorize and that is what makes it so exciting to depict.

Emily Tironi is a disabled mixed media collage artist who lives and works in Cambridge, NY. Emily went to college for Media Arts and Disability Studies and used both and her experience as a person with a disability to create mixed media collages. Her work focuses on disability rights, and representation. She had her first solo show in 2020 at Southern Vermont Arts Center and was published in Kolaj Magazine. During the pandemic, she participated in several virtual residencies and exhibitions.

The works explore the uniqueness of human body and relate to nature, biology and culture. They are created from images of older known works depicting the body as well as book covers and pages themselves.

IKOUII ARTIST Efrat Vaknin was Born in Beer Sheba, Israel in 1979. She started showing interest in art already at a very early age. Being a tomboy and very curious child, she became a very adventures girl with great sense of independence. Independence that was brutally interrupted following a traffic accident she undergone at the age of 17. After a long period of rehabilitation from both physical and mental trauma, she became very preoccupied with her body and sexuality.

While discovering her “new” sexuality, she began exploring her new physical capabilities and the changes that her body has been going through. After discovering that her body had failed her too many times in doing what she wished for, she decided to test and stretch her body’s capabilities by using it as a tool in her artistic performance. Doing so she was able to deal with her post-traumatic symptoms, low self-esteem and with the physical changes her body was undergoing. This way she was able to expose her body to men with whom she had relationship, and later also publicly in her artistic performance, since she was able to alienate her body from herself and turn it into an art exhibit, which became her therapy.

Los Angeles-based artist Ruby Vartan was born in Beirut and classically trained at the Academie Libanaise des Beaux Artes. The strong use of color in her paintings, which reflects her Armenian heritage and identity, symbolizes her desires as well. She has exhibited in Southern California at Launch, Cactus Gallery, Ace/121 Gallery, and Studio Channel Islands. She has also shown in New York City’s Ace Gallery and numerous times in Yerevan, Armenia including its Museum of Modern Art and the Yerevan Art Expo, South Korea, Los Angeles Art Association.

The hallmark of her work is its revelry in abstracting the female form. These are simultaneous self-portraits and cross-cultural signifiers of feminine essentialism. While wounds and trauma are represented in the abstract, her layered compositions render them as part of a greater journey toward healing and redemption. The ultimate aim of the work is to investigate the notion of a vital life force in a constant state of renewal.