Opening Winter Gallery Night, January 16, and curated by Niki Johnson, Engendered engages the contemporary experience of personal identity through artwork that addresses our relationship to the modern body.
Each work in Engendered voices the intriguing and often complicated dynamics of gender identity, and the societal structures in which those identities are forged, grounded and resisted.
“The bedroom, the body and the queer take center stage, creating a space in which the subordinate experience becomes empowered,” says curator Niki Johnson.
The exhibit strives to ignite further action and dialogue about the inequalities that touch each of our lives, and the strategies through which we negotiate those challenges.
“We first come to understand art through our physical relationship to it. As a physical manifestation of thought, art transcends the amorphous state of ideation to share tangible space with our bodies,” continues Johnson.
“Before we make conceptual leaps, our initial experience of artwork is visceral. Engendered explores these corporeal relationships through a variety of media experiences with the goal of facilitating the creation of personal meaning for its audience.”
Opening Reception
Winter Gallery Night, Friday, January 16, 5 – 9 p.m.
Artist Talks
Thursday, February 19, 6 p.m.
Kim Dickey, Greely Myatt, Pixy Liao
Panel Discussion & Reception
Friday, February 20, 6 p.m.
Kim Dickey, Greely Myatt, Pixy Liao, Tara Bogart, Emily Belknap, Brandi Rogers, Niki Johnson
Moderated by Kat Murrell
Studio visits with Dickey, Myatt and Liao are during the day, February 19 and 20. Engendered is on view January 16 – March 7.
Participating artists include: local artists Tara Bogart (MIAD faculty), Emily Belknap ’07 and Demitra Copoulos; Wisconsin artist Marina Kelly; national artists Jason Briggs (TN), Kim Dickey (CO), Jeremy Hatch (MT), Giselle Hicks (MT), Malia Jensen (NY), Pixy Liao (NY), David Lobdell (NM), Jaydan Moore (VA), Greely Myatt (TN), Kyle Patnaude (ME), Martha Russo (CO), Amelia Toelke (NY); and international artists Marek Cecula (NY and Poland), Anders Krisar (Sweden), Livia Marin (England) and Luiz Philippe (Brazil).
Engendered is on view in MIAD’s Frederick Layton Gallery and is generously sponsored in part by the Mary L. Nohl Fund of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. Curator Niki Johnson is a MIAD faculty member and current Pfister Artist in Residence.
Top image: Jason Briggs, Rest
Second image: Pixy Liao, Walking in My Shoes, 2013
Third image: Malia Jensen, Unmade Bed #10, soap
