The Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University and Temple Contemporary will host (im)positions - Women Portraying Women’s Bodies, a panel discussion featuring visual artists Erin M. Riley (MFA ’09), Autumn Wallace (BFA ’18), and Chelsey Luster (BFA ’19), moderated by art historian and Tyler Professor Emerita Therese “Terry” Dolan, PhD.
The event, which will be held March 15, from 6:30–8 p.m., is part of (re)FOCUS 2024, a citywide festival (January 27—May 31) celebrating the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking 1974 exhibition Philadelphia Focuses on Women in the Visual Arts, one of the first large-scale surveys of the work of contemporary American women artists.
Organized by Judith K. Brodsky (MFA '67) and Diane Burko with the assistance of Marsha Moss, (re)FOCUS shows how women-identified and BIPOC artists have moved from the periphery to the center of the art world.
The depiction of female bodies in art, as rendered by women artists, is a topic that continues to have profound significance and relevance in today's culture. For each of the panelists, the portrayal of women’s bodies (both their own, and those of others) is central to their artistic practices and identities.
Luster, a Philadelphia-based curator, educator, and visual artist from Baltimore, MD, explores the complexities of safe spaces in queer and Black culture through mixed medium paintings and installations.
“These works showcase Black, queer, trans, and femme people in a way that highlights their tenderness and vulnerability to challenge the hyper-sexualized and performative narratives often placed on these communities in mainstream media, and gives my models agency over their image,” Luster said.
Wallace, a Philadelphia-based visual artist, works across media to create paintings and sculptures that examine human sexuality, gender, and the Black femme experience. Her works emphasize the potential for empowerment, encouragement, and communal care in such artistic depictions.
“The importance of portraying the femme physique in all its glory is more important than ever. With videos able to edit so-called ‘imperfections’ in real time, we forget how beautiful our true skin is; the stories written throughout its rolling hills and troughs of growth,” she shared.
Riley, a Brooklyn-based artist whose work focuses on women and women's issues primarily in hand-woven hand dyed wool tapestries, views self-portraiture as a means of navigating and processing life experiences – as well as confronting and subverting conventionally held cultural narratives around women’s self-expression.
“Using various objects, imagery I have taken of myself, and memories I work to express narratives and unlearn the fear, shame, and insecurities that go along with existing in the body of a woman,” she said.
Riley, Luster, and Wallace will delve further into these topics with Dolan at Temple’s Science Education and Research Center (SERC) first floor auditorium. The panel will be preceded by a reception from 6-6:30 p.m. at the Temple Contemporary galleries, 2001 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122.