LADYLIKE: A proper take on feminist art

Krista Babbitt (Chicago), Andrea Dezso (New York), Jessica Hannah (Chicago), Sally Ko (Chicago), Ke-Sook Lee (Kansas City),Emma McCagg (New York), Lorraine Peltz (Chicago), Abigail Pope (New York), Susan Sensemann (Chicago),Stacia Yeapanis (Chicago).

The exhibition LADYLIKE is curated by Joanne Hinkel.
Opening reception
Friday, June 13, 2008
6 - 9 pm

LADYLIKE features the work of ten artists who represent the dynamic spectrum of contemporary feminist art.2007 was quite a year for commemorating feminist art history, from the unveiling of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum of Art to the traveling retrospective "WACK!" Art and The Feminist Revolution! Out of these events dedicated to '70s feminist art, the same forward-thinking questions kept surfacing: What does feminist art look like today? Where should feminist art go now? These questions have no single answer. Feminist artists continue to push boundaries, working with an array of attitudes, approaches, and sensibilities that cannot be locked up in one collective hope chest. Though, the hallmark aspect of feminist art's legacy, to use personal history as a point of inspiration, endures. LADYLIKE artists use a variety of methods -- fiber arts, video, installation, paintings, print works, sculpture, mixed-media installation, and photography -- to sift through personal memories, experiences, and fantasies. To tell us a story about what being ladylike means.

More on LADYLIKE artists:

Autobiographical storytelling and performances are the hallmarks of Warm Ups, Krista Babbitt's video that examines one woman's, one family's and our culture's obsession with fitness.

Andrea Dezso chronicles her mother's advice and warnings for her on sexuality, relationships, health and men in a series of embroidery drawings called "Lessons I Learned From My Mother." Her Romanian-born mother's beliefs were imbued with folklore and superstitions that may strike us as hilarious, yet they point to an old-world view of womanhood that is very much alive in some culture

Jessica Hannah's Showroom No. 6 involves six live female models put on display by a fictitious company that manufactures robotic companions, circa 1950. An exhilarating mixed-media performance will take place on opening night of LADYLIKE (June 13, 2008, 6-9pm), while the installation component will remain on display through July.

Sally Ko has long worked through her memories of adjusting to American life as a Korean-born girl through color, paint, and pattern. This time she meditates on her experience of pregnancy; the result is two paintings with a life force all their own.

Reclaiming the craft that her grandmother taught her, Ke-Sook Lee uses thread as a marker of memory on delicate handkerchiefs, stitching portraits representing generations of nameless women in Korea who could not speak for themselves through verbal means.

Emma McCagg's new "Baby Paintings," rendered with a distinct and theatrical line, speak to the sexualization of little girls in American culture. From Britney Spears' initial persona to news footage of Mormon girls being married off as adolescents -- examples of this phenomenon abound in popular culture. Using stencils and abstract painting, Lorraine Peltz fuses fashion, style icons, symbols of glamour and glitz, and personal memories into a celebration of feminism. Her paintings bring a decidedly fun element to the exhibit.

Photographer Abigail Pope's Ghost Portrait, from her series "Westover," exposes the spiritual history of a collective kind of feminism at an all-girls preparatory school in Connecticut. Susan Sensemann, well-known for her autobiographical photographs that recall themes from literature, exhibits her latest collages: fusing drawing with appropriated images, they are explosions of nature and color, bursting with fecundity.

Stacia Yeapanis explores the existential significance of entertainment, such as watching television and collecting as a hobby. Yeapanis exhibits two videos from her ongoing "My Life As a Sim" project, in which her avatar is a '70s feminist video artist. Also included is Yeapanis's embroidery portrait of Buffy the Vampire Slayer from her "Everybody Hurts" series.

Koscielak Gallery

1646 N. Bosworth Ave,
Chicago, IL 60622


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