The exhibition will feature artists that use the body as an initiating point to explore and critique the cultural transformation of body politics.  Participating artists:  Kelly Blakeslee, LJ Douglas, Nancy Fewkes, Alice Hargrave, Noelle Hoover, Lili Maya, Eunju Lee, Melissa Oresky, Mindy Rose Schwartz and Annie Sifferman.

 

Artists have used the body as a source of inspiration since cave drawing. These early artists used direct observation to examine the external body, in trying to better understand its working, they cut into it, to learn its internal secrets. Out of these systems of thought, arose the study of the metaphysics of being, the intellect encapsulated in the body, and modern medicine. This shared history of science and western art are linked because of the exploration of these early artists.

The artists in this exhibition share the values of those early pioneers. They are using the body as a starting point for various explorations; critiquing the body as a cultural sign, a container, a messenger of a new frontiers, and a celebration of gross anatomy. They are simultaneously referring to the body as a cultural icon and cultural question. Each of the artists in this exhibition tap into various modes of thought, sometimes conceptual, sometimes abstract, frequently moving between alternating layers of metaphor, symbol and sign.

-L. J. Douglas, Guest Curator