NEWS

A Visual Conversation about Bodies

A visual dialogue about bodies and how they are perceived in media has been undertaken by the Female Photographers Org collective. As the group’s first publication, The Body Issue addresses the depiction of bodies and the perception of them; at the same time, it also launches a series of photo books. Founded in 2018, Female Photographers Org will regularly publish photography books devoted to issues, while also organizing companion exhibitions under its own direction. The goal is to increase the visibility of female photographers, since women are still underrepresented in the art world. Female Photographers Org is aiming to change this situation and calls upon women to reinforce their positions collectively. The Body Issue also invites guest artists to publish their work in the collective’s books, so that they can literally experience solidarity among women.

FEMALE PHOTOGRAPHERS ORG is a democratically organized collective founded in 2018 by KIRSTEN BECKEN and VERONIKA FAUSTMANN. Since then, more than twenty female photographers have joined its ranks. The Body Issue, the first volume in this series, has been funded by a Kickstarter campaign.

THE PHOTOGRAPHERS
Bex Day, Haley Morris-Cafiero, Katharina Bosse, Maggie Steber, Meklit Fekadu, Jennifer Greenburg, Jocelyn Lee, Lilly Urbat, Kirsten Becken, Claudia Holzinger, Jessica Barthel, Caro Siegl, Oriana Layendecker, Nora Lowinsky, Hanna Mattes, Veronika Faustmann, Katya Abedian, Paula Winkler, Marzena Skubatz, Qiana Mestrich

GUEST ARTISTS
Brandy Eve Allen, Brittney Cathey-Adams, Mary Chen, Tamara Dean, Yushi Li, Dita Pepe, Lotte van Raalte, Laurie Simmons, Chanell Stone

Blue Sky 2019 Curatorial Prize: An Inward Gaze

Blue Sky is pleased to present its second annual curatorial prize exhibition, An Inward Gaze. Curators Jon Feinstein and Roula Seikaly have brought together the work of Arielle Bobb-Willis and Brittney Cathey-Adams, two women who make sculptural, performative images that counter the male gaze and its prevalence in art history. In doing so, they illustrate how this power dynamic bolsters pervasive gender, race, and body size stereotypes in contemporary art and pop culture. Bobb-Willis’ vivid staged photographs use the human form as source material and as stand-ins for self-portraits representing her own complex emotional struggles. Cathey-Adams creates black-and-white self-portraits in various natural settings that declare personal agency in representation, and defy historical stigmas attached to women who do not fit an idealized physical mold.

2019 Curatorial Prize: An Inward Gaze

Blue Sky is pleased to present its second annual curatorial prize exhibition, An Inward Gaze. Curators Jon Feinstein and Roula Seikaly have brought together the work of Arielle Bobb-Willis and Brittney Cathey-Adams, two women who make sculptural, performative images that counter the male gaze and its prevalence in art history. In doing so, they illustrate how this power dynamic bolsters pervasive gender, race, and body size stereotypes in contemporary art and pop culture. Bobb-Willis’ vivid staged photographs use the human form as source material and as stand-ins for self-portraits representing her own complex emotional struggles. Cathey-Adams creates black-and-white self-portraits in various natural settings that declare personal agency in representation, and defy historical stigmas attached to women who do not fit an idealized physical mold.

Feinstein and Seikaly describe the work in An Inward Gaze as “an abstraction of control and self representation. Rather than offering a salve for the many complex problems tied to the male gaze, we’ve paired the work of Arielle Bobb-Willis and Brittney Cathey-Adams in an attempt to reframe looking: how two artists use photography to process their own inner struggles, how they use images of the physical form as metaphors for these monologues, and ultimately, how their methods are a means of taking ownership over their bodies and inward spaces.”

An Inward Gaze Exhibition Catalogue

Purchase a copy of An Inward Gaze here. Featured Artists: Brittney Cathey-Adams and Arielle Bob-Willis.