My rage-stitched wall installation, Jezebel, was accepted into its 2nd juried exhibition of the year. This time it will be a part of the annual Louisiana Contemporary at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, Louisiana. My artist statement for the work is below.

I began working on ‘Jezebel’ right after Roe v Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court. Each form was fashioned out of aluminum foil and wrapped with strips of old bedsheets, various dyed fabrics and finally 'rage-stitched’ together. Rage-stitching is a meditative act of hand-stitching as a means of solitary protest—a physical, timeless act of solidarity with people around the world who are also suffering under the oppressive dominion of the patriarchy. The forms explore the intricate web in/of our reproductive bodies and address the battle for bodily autonomy and reproductive justice in this country. 

Suzanna Scott, 2024

This year’s juror, Lauren Haynes, Head Curator, Governors Island Arts and Vice President for Arts and Culture at the Trust for Governors Island, has selected 41 works by 37 artists from over one-thousand submissions.

JUROR STATEMENT

It would be a naive to assume that every artist in each state creates work that reflects their state or that artists have one consistent commonality based on location. Artists are not only influenced by their surroundings, but also by their individual life experiences and artistic leanings and interests. So, when asked to be the juror for the 2024 edition of Louisiana Contemporary, presented by The Helis Foundation, I was not sure what I would see, but was excited to see a variety of works that created a strong sample of artists living and working in Louisiana today – and I wasn’t disappointed. This year’s entrants for Louisiana Contemporary, presented by The Helis Foundation, submitted works in an array of media, depicting a wide range of topics. In the over 1100 submissions by 367 artists, there was a strong contingent of works depicting animals and the natural world. Clearly the fantastic landscape of Louisiana has an impact on some who live there. There was also a good amount of portraiture, both self-portraiture and images of others. And with regards to sculpture, artists are using all types of materials and processes to create unique and layered works. What struck me most about all the submissions was the range of ages and artistic backgrounds of the makers. There were entries from undergrad students, entries from MFA students, entries from people who have been working as artists for decades and entries from those who have come to art making later in life. Some entrants have submitted works to this exhibition for many years and for some this was their first attempt to be in this exhibition. Clearly the creative urge in Louisiana is strong and isn’t restricted to one group of people. During the selection process, I wasn’t looking for works that all had the same theme or proved some thesis I developed. My process was a bit more intuitive. The final selections represent the works I was drawn to, as great examples of work being made by a variety of makers living and working in Louisiana in 2024.

Ogden Museum of Southern Art first launched Louisiana Contemporary, presented by The Helis Foundation in 2012, to establish a vehicle that would bring to the fore the work of artists living in Louisiana and highlight the dynamism of art practice throughout the state. Since the inaugural exhibition thirteen years ago, Ogden Museum has shown works by over 560 artists, making Louisiana Contemporary an important moment in the national arts calendar to recognize and experience the spectrum and vitality of artistic voices emanating from New Orleans and in art communities across Louisiana.

This statewide, juried exhibition promotes the contemporary art practices in the state of Louisiana, provides an exhibition space for the exposition of living artists’ work and engages a contemporary audience that recognizes the vibrant visual arts culture of Louisiana and the role of New Orleans as a rising, international art center.

Another opportunity arose to install Ascendant, this time in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. They were a perfect fit for the theme of Wild. 

Wild Thoughts. Wild Actions. Wild Places. Wild Beings. 

Taking an expansive approach to wild, wildness, and wilderness, Glassell Gallery invited contemporary local and regional artists and culture bearers to submit work that embraces radical imagination and radical noticing of both the wild within us and the wild that surrounds us. 

The exhibition was juried by artist and Xavier Professor of Art Ron Bechet. Of the 239 entries by 80 artists, 44 works by 37 artists are included in the exhibition.

LSU School of Art is pleased to announce the following artists will be included in the exhibition: Cameron Savage, Amber Hart, Nonney Oddlokken, April Hammock, Richard Boehnke, Justin Solomon, Mark Leavens, Lance Wilson, Miles Kinney, Ashton Howard, Drew Bolotte, Dan Rule, Adrien Picquenot, Becky Blackburn, Adrien Lee, Francis Wong, Therese Knowles, Marcia LeCompte, Julie Glass, Randell Henry, Suzanna Scott, Safiyeh Niknami, Dorcas Brandon, Meagan Moore, Brad Jensen, Sarah Amacker, Vincent Wright, Nathaniel Britton, Kelly Mueller, Isadora Hayes, Geeta Dave, Zoe Magee, Mia Pons, Mahoney Perkins, Debra Roberson, Pamela Cardwell, and Bethany LeJeune.

Angels Gate Cultural Center of San Pedro, California is pleased to present UPEND Female Experience and Activism a new group exhibition featuring contemporary women artists. Providing a counter to the increased societal distress of a return to toxic hypermasculinity, UPEND depicts strength and resistance in a decidedly female-identifying voice - upending expectations for what can and cannot be said, and how women should act. UPEND opens with a public reception on Saturday, June 22nd from 2pm to 4pm at the Center, with a performance by She Loves Collective in the gallery.

UPEND Female Experience and Activism explores contemporary, intersectional feminist issues through the lens of radical empathy for the female experience. Works explore both the inner personal lives of women and their outward expressions of resistance. UPEND is a response to the cultural resurgence of hypertoxic masculinity and recent political upheavals diminishing bodily autonomy and rights for women. By sharing the unique perspectives of women, UPEND hopes to create empathy for the experiences of others.

UPEND Female Experience and Activism is curated by Cecelia Koger and features works by Kennedi Carter, Nonny de la Peña, Ibuki Kuramochi, Andrea Patrie, Elyse Pignolet, She Loves Collective, Suzanna Scott, Sheli Silverio, and Kayla Tange.

Beyond Boundaries at Flavio Dolce Art Projects in New Orleans features the work of ten stellar artists in a colorful variety of mediums. I'm happy to have this new collection of my Coin Cunt series included in this exhibition along with another new fiber sculpture. You can peruse the entire show catalog here.

I think I must be daydreaming because I'm about to have my work in three concurrent group exhibitions in New York City during Women's History Month. Take a peek at my previous posts to find out more about the Every Woman Biennial at La Mama Galleria and Making History at Krause Gallery. Today I'm tickled pink to share this announcement:

Guy Hepner is pleased to present Daydream curated by The Pink Lemonade opening March 21st in New York City. Featuring works by Jeff Muhs, Suzanna Scott, Francesco Vullo, Andrew Orloski, Nøne Futbol Club, Leeah Joo, Josh Callaghan, Brock Davis, Kerry Skarbakka and Eliana Marinari. Established in 2016 The Pink Lemonade captivates with its artistic charm on Instagram spotlighting captivating art and photography. This meticulously curated platform serves as a feast for art enthusiast and visual digital content curators alike. 

About The Pink Lemonade:

The Pink Lemonade is a curatorial project founded by Italian artist Francesco Vullo on Instagram in 2016. In just a few years, it has become one of the most influential art pages on social media, building a community of 2.5 million people from every part of the world. With the mission to make art and visual culture more accessible to everyone, TPL began its journey as a platform for sharing images, shedding light on emerging artists and cultural phenomena that impact our society. With a wide selection of images ranging from photography, sculpture, paintings, design and lifestyle content, the page is considered a reference point for those involved in the creative industry and beyond.

The Exhibition:

Today, after 8 years of online curation, we are excited to announce our very first physical exhibition. Hosted by Guy Hepner gallery in New York City, the show will include established and emerging artists that through their practices reinterpret our daily existence, giving to the visitors a different point of view of the reality we live in. This exhibition will play with the viewer’s sense of understanding the world and the things in it, displaying a selection of artworks that blend different materials and techniques such as photography, sculpture, textile art and installation. Everyday objects will lose their original functionality and purpose creating new statements about everyday themes, transforming the ordinary into something strange and surrealistic that blur the boundaries between reality and imagination. 

The  Every Woman Biennial, the largest female and non-binary art festival (originally launched as The Whitney Houston Biennial in 2014), will present its 5th edition, March 2-March 24, 2024, with a media preview on March 1, 6-8 pm, timing with Women’s History Month and The Whitney Biennial, at La MaMa Galleria in downtown NYC. The theme and title, “I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU,” continues its homage to Whitney Houston’s music uplifting women which was the inspiration for the creation of the Biennial. The Every Woman Biennial aims to incorporate as many points of view as possible, to truly capture this moment in time from the gaze of women and non-binary artists; and as its following has grown tremendously over the last decade, the open call resulted in 700 applicants from which 200 artists were selected to participate in a dynamic floor-to-ceiling salon and performances.

The Every Woman Biennial is a cross-pollinated representation of artists working in a variety of mediums across generations (ranging in age from 14 to 83 years old), and racial and ethnic backgrounds. It is about discovery, community, and connection, presenting emerging and under-recognized artists, some having their first exhibition, alongside acclaimed feminist artists, including: Nadya Tolokonnikova (Pussy Riot), Swoon, Michele Pred, Liz Collins, Michelle Handelman, and more. All are coming together in a wildly eclectic salon in a range of styles including painting, photography, installation, sculpture, video, multimedia, augmented reality, textile, music and performance. A new and very special addition to I Will Always Love You will be a section dedicated to personal objects and small art works donated by the participating artists – a crafted item, talisman, amulet, spell, found object, crow's gift, lover letter, etc. – sharing and honoring the joy, nostalgia, hope and pain of being human. All artworks in the exhibition are for sale, with the talismans each priced at $25, enabling everyone to take home an artwork or memento of the show.

Michele Pred’s neon red heart surrounding a pink fist, Love As Activism, lights up La MaMa’s street window 24-hours a day setting the Biennial tone. Upon entering the exhibition, visitors are invited to be baptized in the Holy Rainbow Church of Matriarchy – Nadya Tolokonnikova’s pink and glittered take on a holy fountain titled Holy Squirt, 2023. Themes of matriarchy, gender fluidity, social and racial justice, women’s rights, and flipping the stereotypes of “women’s work” are a focus of many artists’ representations of their daily lives, bodies, desires, identities, and traumas; as well as immortalizing those they cherish – friends, lovers, mothers, grandmothers, mentors, and icons.

Danielle Scott’s, Queen of Angels, 2021, a mixed media collage on a vintage ironing board, originally presented at the Museum of African Diaspora, is an homage to the 26-year-long friendship with her mentor, the late Gladys Barker Grauer - artist, gallerist, activist, and politician, who feared being forgotten. Airco Caravan’s humorous and conceptual work honors African-American icons – Harriet Tubman, Angela Davis, Rosa Parks – in Power Trio, using spray cans and swapping consumerist labels for empowered portraits with witty activist slogans. Heroes closer to home and heart - mothers and grandmothers - are given recognition often neglected on gallery walls, in works such as Lifu Hu’s photo series, Grandma, depicting her grandmother having the courage to break out of her introverted nature to play in ways tha connect with the younger generation. Stacey Billups’ oil painting, Aquinnah Cliffs, depicts the joy of a day at the beach shared with friends.

Cara Erskine’s pastoral abstract oil painting, Rainy Luncheon in the Studio Grass, 2021, features figures dressed in matching outfits that could allude to a kinship with teammates, or different aspects of the self through moments in life, in her ethereal fantasy weaving together art and historical references across time. Political and social issues are creatively explored in layered storytelling of dark subject matter such as Izabella Demalvys’, Saira, a portrait of one of Pakistan's female victims of brutal arson and acid attacks. Dominique Vitali’s, Talia, is a delicately drawn and disturbing contemporary depiction of the original Sleeping Beauty story, written by Giambattista Basile in 1634, in which she is aroused out of a deep sleep by the babies born from the Prince’s rape of her unconscious and unconsenting body. Caroline Voagen Nelson brings Lucy Burns - activist, jailed suffragette, and co-founder of the National Woman’s Party - to life in the amazing augmented reality print, Her Vote: Lucy Burns.

Clothing, as armor or restraint, is examined in a range of ways, including embroidered aprons and slips, and as a symbol of our consumerist destruction in Kat Ryals’s cast glass croc, Sailors Slipper (Traharella), 2023. Multi-hyphenated artist Chanel Matsunami Govreau’s convergence of wearable sculpture and gender expansiveness is presented through the soft armor of a wig in the photograph, i feel my most genderqueer in a wigcap. Side-by-side with figurative works are abstract and textile works including Fukuko Harris’ brightly colored clay and mixed media sculpture reinventing pussy hats into earthy organic forms in Women’s March. Suzanna Scott’s Coin Cunts are a multi-colored symbol of empowerment and equality for all with a vulva, symbolically turning the ubiquitous object of a purse inside out, and challenging the misogynistic and racist culture in the U.S. Classical miniature embroidered, and embellished, portraits by Karina Majkut, titled Fair Play, subvert the toxic masculinity of vintage baseball cards by obscuring the identity, and making them more inclusive, ambiguous -and sparkling.

Short time-based media by 27 artists will play in a continuous loop, allowing visitors to quickly sample a number of videos, as well as longer works provided with a menu to allow visitors to select specific videos to view. Performance art and live music will continually enliven the Biennial, including a choir performance by Gaia Music Collective on opening day, and musical performances by Alison Clancy, La Galli, and more.

The 2024 Every Woman Biennial, is co-curated by a team of creatives and artists who have been the driving force managing and producing all previous Biennials with founder C. Finley: Molly Caldwell, Executive Director and Producer; Eddy Segal, Artistic Director; and Jerelyn Huber, Gallery/ Production Manager. Funding is generously provided by: The Deborah Buck Foundation, The Jonathan Rinehart Family Foundation, and Caldwellings Real Estate.

My latest wall installation, Jezebel, was accepted into Timelapse, the 7th Louisiana Biennial, a national juried exhibition hosted by Louisiana Tech University School of Design. The juror is Laura Blereau, Curator of Exhibitions at the Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University in New Orleans. I’m excited to join 40+ national artists in sharing work here in my local community. If you live in North Louisiana or surrounding area, please save the date and I hope to see you there on the 30th!

Starting out this new year with an invitational group exhibition at Flavio Dolce Art Projects in New Orleans, Louisiana. This is a textile oriented show with several other artists who are pushing the medium in diverse ways. Two of my slightly older works are to be included, Out of Reach (2017), pictured above and Osmosis (2015). The exhibit was curated by artist Rodrigo Franzão and will be on view from January 13 to February 29, 2024.

Contemporary Chronicles serves as a dynamic platform for engaging discussions on contemporary socio-cultural themes, inviting visitors to navigate through a harmonious and nuanced perspective on social changes, personal stories, and the ever-evolving dialogue between tradition and modernity.

This exhibition not only encapsulates the spirit of our time but also anticipates the evolution of art itself. Visitors are encouraged to explore a wide range of mediums, from traditional canvases echoing the timeless strokes of artistic mastery to digital works that push the boundaries of creativity. The artists behind Contemporary Chronicles aim to initiate profound and meaningful conversations, challenge preconceptions, and offer a nuanced glimpse into the rich tapestry of stories shaping our collective consciousness.

I'm really excited for the Coin Cunts  to visit Chicago! This particular traveling set has visited several major cities around the US as well as international destinations in Malta and Russia where they met with some resistance but that's a story for another day.

Curators Gone Rogue and [salonlb.] are proud to present Feminist to the Core exhibition, featuring over 25 artists working in a wide range of mediums from around the world, expressing the artists’ experiences and visions of feminism. The exhibition will kick off with an opening reception on August 18th, from 6-10 PM, featuring a live performance of She’s Only Sleeping, a feminist adaption of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, by artist/performer Ginny Sykes and Joel Hall Dancers Artistic Director Jacqueline Sinclair, at 7:30 PM.

[salonlb.] is a multidisciplinary exhibition space and event venue in Bridgeport designed to engage critically with the arts, a forum supporting emerging and mid-career artists, with an emphasis on sculpture, mixed media, and contemporary craft. Founded by artist Lauren Brescia, [salonlb.] features 10,000 square feet of multi-use creative space in an industrial loft-style warehouse.

Participating artists include Lisa Jean Allswede, Susan Aurinko, Bridgette Bramlage, Lauren Brescia, Patty Carroll, Julie Carcione, Laura Collins, Jennifer Cronin, Rebecca Cynamon-Murphy, Kim Dotty Hachman, Savannah Jubic, Iyomi Ho Ken, Barbara Kendrick, Aga Kubiak, Elaine Luther, Britni Mara, Paula Martinez, Bobbi Meier, Maggie Meiners, Eve Ozer, Melissa Ann Pinney, Sara Salass, Sondra Schwetman, Suzanna Scott, Shima Star, Ginny Sykes, Sydney Vize, and Holly Wong

I was absolutely thrilled to hear 'Ascendant' was accepted into this years highly competitive Louisiana Contemporary exhibition at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans. Since we moved to Louisiana in 2016 I've been throwing my hat into the ring every year and I'm excited to say this year is the year! Looking forward to spending a couple days installing at the museum, hanging out with the family, and attending the opening during White Linen Night.

Ogden Museum of Southern Art first launched Louisiana Contemporary,  presented by The Helis Foundation in 2012, to establish a vehicle that would bring to the fore the work of artists living in Louisiana and highlight the dynamism of art practice throughout the state. Since the inaugural exhibition twelve years ago, Ogden Museum has shown works by over 500 artists, making Louisiana Contemporary  an important moment in the national arts calendar to recognize and experience the spectrum and vitality of artistic voices emanating from New Orleans and in art communities across Louisiana.

This statewide, juried exhibition promotes the contemporary art practices in the state of Louisiana, provides an exhibition space for the exposition of living artists’ work and engages a contemporary audience that recognizes the vibrant visual arts culture of Louisiana and the role of New Orleans as a rising, international art center.

This year’s guest juror, Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander, the Robert M. and Ruth L. Halperin Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford, has selected 45 works by 31 artists from a total of 790 submissions.

“Art is a guide for every person who is looking for something.” –Thornton Dial, 1996

Growing up between Bangkok and the Pacific Northwest, the American South was mysterious and unfamiliar territory to my younger self. My family never visited the region, and I gleaned all my knowledge of it from history textbooks and the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” When it came time to pick a dissertation topic in graduate school, while my colleagues decided to pursue projects in Italy and the Netherlands, I took a different path. I wanted to spend those crucial years in a historically significant, culturally vibrant and fascinatingly complex place that might seem unexpected to most art historians. As an outsider and transplant to this country, I was looking for some understanding of what it means to be American. There was no better – or more necessary –place to embark on this journey than through the South, and art was my guide. Through my research, I encountered so many incredible artists, collectors and community members, and these experiences have fundamentally shaped my worldview as a curator and art historian. In my mind, for reasons both challenging and energizing, you don’t really know the United States until you’ve spent time below the Mason-Dixon.

I am grateful to be this year’s juror, as it has allowed me to take another Southern journey through Louisiana. It is humbling to be in this role, as there is no way one can select a fully representative and complete grouping of works. This is a testament to the vitality of artistic production taking place here. I will always be a steadfast admirer of artists: the sheer courage it takes to make unique, soulful, singular things and share them with the world – in this case, asking to be judged—is radical. This year’s selection offers a diverse range of form, content, material and maker. Some works suggest vulnerability and intimacy, while others function as incisive critiques of the past and present. In certain cases, some pieces felt prophetic, anticipating the world to come. To those artists whose works I did not select, please know this process primarily reflects the juror, and I encourage all to continue on the creative path.

Artists are essential workers. You are consequential and necessary, and it is our responsibility as a society to find ways to support you. The Louisiana Contemporary is one such meaningful platform, and I am honored to be part of its history.

Congratulations to all involved. 

Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander
Robert M. and Ruth L. Halperin Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art
Co-director, Asian American Art Initiative
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University

Two of my rope sculptures were selected by juror Melissa Vandenberg to be included in this years Mid-South Sculpture Alliance exhibition. The exhibit includes sculpture by twenty four member artists in a variety of mediums. On view through June 3rd at City Gallery in the Pam Miller Downtown Arts Center in Lexington, Kentucky.

Here’s the latest iteration of my fiber sculpture Ascendant installed at the Yeiser Art Center for this year's Fantastic Fibers exhibition, juried by fiber artist Rena Wood. Now in its 36th year, this long running fiber exhibition features artwork from 26 states and five countries. This year the international juried exhibition showcases outstanding work in fiber and includes 62 works from 500 submissions. The show began in 1987 as a wearable art show but has evolved over the years to include a compelling mix of traditional and non-traditional works created from natural or synthetic fibers, and work that addresses the subject or medium of fiber. One of Yeiser Art Center’s most engaging, innovative & colorful international exhibits, Fantastic Fibers is an inspirational must see for fine artists, quilters, and textile art enthusiasts across the globe.

The I Choose, Therefore I Am Project is a peaceful protest and public art exhibition created by textile artist, curator, and activist Rachelle LeBlanc shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe vs. Wade in 2022. The project aims to explore textile art's subversive potential and gives artists working with textile-based techniques an opportunity to voice the female experience concerning women's rights through art. These rights include the right to choose for herself, to live free from violence, discrimination from skin color, reproductive rights, sexual rights, including the LGBTQ community, and exploitation.

Textile art is a powerful form of discourse that transforms complex ideas and celebrates traditional skills while simultaneously giving importance to new innovative material processes. It is also a powerful tool for communication that helps bring difficult conversations forward through craftivism and its unique role in effecting social and environmental change.

Where there is a choice, there is a voice to choose with complete liberty and freedom for oneself. It is all-encompassing, and the heartbeat of Amnesty International's Women's Rights are Human Rights. What does this mean to you? How is this expressed through art? The answer to these questions can be found in the artworks within.

A new generation of international professional and amateur textile artists was invited to participate in a permanent online public exhibition, catalog, and biennial show. Artists from Canada, the United States, France, England, Poland, Germany, Australia, Russia, Hungary, New Zealand, and Iran include Jo-Ann Morgan, Katherine Shehadeh, Sarah Divi, Andrea Finch, Rebecca Schwarzberg, Rachelle LeBlanc, Suzanna Scott, Maria Wegrzyniak-Szczepkowska, Jennifer LaMastra, Neroli Henderson, Patti Colen, Barbara Burns Harpswell, Lena Meszaros, Courtney Turner, Debbie McIntosh, Vicki Stone, Tracey Kinsella, Katy Drury Anderson, Analeise Jarvi-Beamer, Michelle Knappe, Marty Ornish, April DeConick, Molly Colegrove, Laura Kenny, Linda Rae Coughlin, Winnie van der Rijn, Sarah Rieser, Joanne Vena, Janice Turner, Victoria Rudolf, David Van Buskirk.

I am stoked to be joining 44 artists in this fierce exhibit at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago to protest the overturn of Roe v. Wade. The exhibition opens this Saturday.

Woman Made Gallery is proud to present Roe 2.0 in direct protest and response to the United States Supreme Court’s 6–3 Dobbs v. Jackson decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that established the constitutional right to abortion in 1973. Roe 2.0 is a hybrid group exhibition featuring works in a variety of mediums by 44 artists in WMG’s gallery space as well as varied responses to the theme by 100 artists in the virtual-only part of this important and powerful exhibition.

The Dobbs v. Jackson verdict leaves people with the capacity for pregnancy at the mercy of each individual state, which can now set their own abortion laws. Access to safe, legal abortions and reproductive healthcare is a basic human right that the U.S. government actively chooses to exploit. The denial of reproductive rights and access disproportionately affects individuals of color and those from economically disadvantaged communities. Our bodies and reproductive capabilities are not a political playground.

We at WMG believe that art can and does create lasting social change. As an intersectional feminist organization, WMG stands in solidarity with pro-choice activists and organizations. This exhibition seeks to document artists’ voices in this time of urgency, as a means of resistance to facilitate change and create a space for open dialogue regarding abortion rights.

Exhibiting Artists: Amy Bernard, Colby Parker Beutel, Marnie Blair, Borealis, Riley Brady, Marcie Brozyna, Amy Cannestra, Julie Carcione Cavaz, Melanie Deal, Anne Dushanko Dobek, Karen Fike, Ellen Fishman, Lisa Freeman, Theresa Giammattei, Anita Giraldo, Seyeong Hanlim, Frederica Diane Huff, Ali Hval, Ina Kaur, Helen Klebesacel, Epiphany Knedler, Tulika Ladsariya, Kristy Lisle, Elaine Luther, Marie Magnetic, Glenda Mah, Mildred Annani Mercado, Kelsey Faith Nichols, Niki Nolin, Laura O’Connor, Priscilla Otani, Jina Park, Mimm Patterson, Adam D. Piergallini, Mariana R. Rey, Erin K. Schmidt, Heather Schulte, Rebecca Schwarzberg, Sondra Schwetman Art, Suzanna Scott, Marijo Swick, Winnie van der Rijn, Julie Waltz-Stalker, and Jennifer Weigel.

I was pleased to have my latest sculpture, Otherings, juried into the exhibition Embattled Bodies: Displacement, Trauma, and Resistance, by juror Karlota Contreras-Koterbay, the Director of ETSU Slocumb Galleries and Board Director of the Mid-South Sculpture Alliance. The group exhibition of sculpture is presented by the Mid-South Sculpture Alliance (MSA) and hosted at Vinegar, a women-led contemporary gallery in Birmingham, Alabama.

This group of kisslock purses were found together at a junk shop where I live in Ruston, Louisiana. They are now are included, as transposed Coin Cunts, in a timely exhibition in the city of New Orleans. Artists Respond: Post-Roe Louisiana is a juried exhibition that will feature artwork in a variety of media by artists from Louisiana, in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court of the United States in June of 2022. The exhibition will be on view in the Carroll Gallery of the Newcomb Art Department of Tulane University, and will include student work as well as artwork by established and emerging artists from throughout the state.

There are only weeks to go until the midterm elections where our bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom are on the ballot. Since the reversal of Roe v Wade in the United States this past summer I've been eagerly awaiting this timely event, Sensing Woman: A multisensory event for reproductive freedom, with keynote speaker V (formerly Eve Ensler) in New York City. I'm grateful to have been invited to share my work alongside other artists speaking out for abortion rights.

Rosebud Woman and WoArt present Sensing Woman: five days and four nights of contemporary art, provocative dialogue, storytelling, music, and human connection around the future of being female. Hosted at C24 Gallery in New York City from September 27th - October 1, 2022 Sensing Woman is a gathering to shift minds and hearts, featuring 50 contemporary visual artworks, and programs spanning culture, medicine, and governance on female embodiment.

All profits will be donated to organizations working to protect and defend autonomy over our bodies, maternal health, and care for women, including The Center for Reproductive Rights and The Center for Intimacy Justice. Tickets and presale of artwork for this event are available at SensingWoman.org.

I am honored to have my wall sculpture, Birthright, included in 'I Know A Place', a summer group exhibit of Louisiana artists curated by Jan Christian Bernabe at Antenna Gallery in New Orleans. The exhibit features artists Jourdan Barnes, Hannah Chalew, Jose Cotto, Thomas Friel, Ann Haley, Lucia Honey, Sara Mandandar, Mary Ratcliff, Suzanna Scott and Jade Thiraswas. 

“As we make our way into 2022, we might consider the weight of the changing and challenging world that we have collectively carried. Many of us feel an overwhelming weariness. These are pandemic times. These are times that have surfaced the cruelest components of humanity using race as a wedge to pit one against another. Yet, these are also times that have brought out the collective resilience, creativity, and kindness of individuals, unwittingly creating a type of queer vigilante—queer, in so far as, their vision is one premised on non-normative ways of navigating the world; feelings of shared struggles and interwoven histories; and queer, in so far as, temporal and spatial comforts exceeds or even defies preordained scripts. These are times when intersections, convergences, and connections, big and small, matter. The group show I Know a Place brings together artists whose artistic practices thrive at the junctions—these are creative intersections in which being a queer vigilante isn’t just another newfangled label but a critical praxis integrated into all facets of one’s life. I Know a Place is group show that creates the very places of comfort and joy; humor and laughter; kinship and solace. These are places that often feel few and far between or referred to in the past tense: “I knew a place.” But these places do exist today. To find them requires the act of reaching out. It’s a matter of simply asking: “Where is that place you know?” The artists in this group show will show you where those places are and then some.” 

—Jan Christian Bernabe

Enjoy a virtual walk through of I Know A Place:

My year-long pandemic stitching project, Ascendant, was accepted into the 59th Annual Juried Competition at the Masur Museum down the road from me in Monroe, Louisiana. The work is a large wall installation comprised of nearly 200 sperm-like forms. Since it is basically one big jigsaw puzzle it takes me about 12 hours to install and I was absolutely thrilled to find a venue to share it locally.

About the Exhibition & Juror

The Masur Museum of Art’s Annual Juried Competition showcases contemporary artists throughout the United States of America working in any medium. The Annual Juried Competition is the Masur Museum’s longest-running tradition and one of its best-reviewed exhibitions each year. Annually, contemporary works of art are submitted by artists all over the nation, in all styles and media. 

The Annual Juried Competition is also a chance to exhibit some of the United States’ best curatorial talent. This year, the Masur Museum is excited to have Susan Baley judge the submitted artworks and select the cash award winners. Baley is the Director of the Grinnell College Museum of Art in Grinnell, Iowa.

Prior to moving to Iowa, Susan Baley was the Executive Director of 108 Contemporary in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Baley also spent several years in Terre Haute, Indiana, as the Executive Director of the Swope Art Museum. Previously, she served as the Director of Education at the University of Oklahoma’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art and taught art history, museum studies, and art appreciation at the high school and college level. She has held leadership roles in professional museum organizations at the state and regional levels and completed the Oklahoma Arts Council’s statewide Leadership Arts program in 2011.

Baley received her BFA in art history with a concentration in Classical studies from Wichita State University, and her MA in art history with a concentration in contemporary art from the University of Oklahoma. Her thesis Mazes, Metaphors, and the Mind explored the relationship between Alice Aycock’s sculptural work and her writing. In 2018, she completed a certificate in Nonprofit Executive Leadership from the University of Indiana’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. She has been working passionately in the arts for more than three decades and continues to believe in the power of art to change lives.

Starting off the new year with my recently completed pair of blanket statements, Toys r US, included in group exhibit opening this week at ARC Gallery in Chicago, Illinois. The exhibition, Body Politics, is juried by interdisciplinary artist Ginny Sykes and includes work by over thirty artists.

In January 1973, Roe v Wade dramatically extended women’s options for bodily autonomy. Notwithstanding, women’s bodies remain a battleground – not just around reproductive health, but in myriad other areas, including (but not limited to) decisions around consent, safety, employment and beauty. Roe v Wade faces new threats to its existence – leaving reproductive rights in ever greater peril. Beginning with the policing of women’s bodies, and expanding to examine all forms of body policing and discrimination, ARC will host a juried exhibition in January 2022 to address these themes. Body politics shape the socio-political climate and affect basic human rights, from the #metoo movement and rape culture, to domestic violence, to gender politics, and right down to the politics of hair in the classroom and workplace.

EXHIBITING ARTISTS:

Nelson Armour, Elizabeth Ashe, Jenny Balisle, Bea, K. Johnson Bowles, Danqi Cai, Jeanne Ciravolo, Lauren DeRosa, Abigail Engstrand, Erin Finley, Sarah Fitzgerald, Kate Forer, Ghislaine Fremaux, Elizabeth Hall, Sharon Harper, Lydia Kegler, Delphin Keim, Gina Lee-Robbins, Beth LeFauve, Theresa Lucey, Sally Machlis, Bette McAvoy, Fiona McCargo, Socorro Mucino, Heather Saunders, Suzanna Scott, Randi Shepard, Dafna Steinberg, Li Turner, Darlene Tyree, Kathy Weaver, Gary L. Wolfe, Christine Wuenschel, Tina Ybarra, Alex Younger

As a North American artist, I have been excited to watch what is happening politically in Chile. Their recent rejection of the patriarchal culture within politics and the inauguration of the first-of-its-kind constitutional assembly, comprised equally of women and men, including indigenous peoples and scientists is truly inspiring. This assembly has been busy writing a new constitution that seeks a future of equality for all of its citizens.

I was generously invited by artist/dancer Rocío Argandoña and Soledad García Saavedra, curator to participate in Lunes es Revolución (Monday is Revolution) at the Salvador Allende Museum in Santiago, Chile. They will be incorporating my installation work Coin Cunts into their revolutionary dance, VAGINA, performed by the collective En/Puja.

Monday is Revolution encourages the encounter with artists that expresses different positions on doing and thinking revolution. The exhibition has its standpoint the day of Monday, associated with the beginning of the workday in which are assigned duties that in several times, eclipse dreams and the individual and collective freedom. Against obligation and work, Monday hosts the starting point of another cycle, one in which revolution could be practice in each day and in different moments, in a creative and irresistible movement, small or exorbitant.

The show seeks to open a conversation inside and outside of the Museum about the different scales, experiences and meanings that revolution had to artists during the sixties and the beginning of the seventies. In particular, the involvements end echoes that had the awakening of revolutions in Cuba and Chile, and beyond their frontiers, where violence, the organized struggles, rebellion and political slogans, coexisted with positions of self- observation, mistake, poetry, play and fiction. Likewise, the recovering and new readings about the documents’ traces of that time –exhibitions, books and slogans– are revisited by artists that look for other corporeal experiences with those incomplete, failed and cancelled processes; those that emerge today with force in the middle of a time social revolts and political crisis. At the core of these conflicts, the dissidence of organizations and collectives in the sexual, gender, environmental and ecological field, usually rejected and overlooked in recent revolutionary movements, open up and disrupt with gravitational pull the local struggles of liberation and care. They are visible and microscopic revolutions that transform the body relations in the everyday life.

Curator: Soledad García Saavedra (Birmingham, 1980) is an independent curator (Goldsmiths College, University of London) and an art historian (Universidad de Chile). She was the coordinator of the Public Programs area of the Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende (2017-2020) and of the Visual Arts Documentation Centre of the Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda (2010-2016). She has put together more than twenty exhibitions in Chile and abroad, as well as editing and publishing books and catalogues.

Artists and collectives participants in the exhibition: María Berríos & Jakob Jakobsen / Brigada Ramona Parra / Brigada Chile-Suecia / Cholita Chic / Colectivo EnPuja / Patricia Israel & Alberto Pérez /Raúl Martínez / Roberto Matta / Luis Felipe Noé /Camila Ramírez / Javier Rodríguez / Jesús Ruiz Durand / Suzanna Scott / Textileras MSSA

Exhibition with the support of: Danish Art Foundation, Danish Embassy, FfAI Arts y Fondart Nacional. 

Earlier this year, soon after I'd completed Hammer & Suckle (below), I came across a call for this juried exhibition so I threw my hat in the ring--or rather my hammer in the ring! Housed in an old home in Poughkeepsie, New York, the Barrett Art Center becomes the site for all that a Fun House offers: the marvelous, disorienting, seductive, disquieting, and surreal. Works that engage with the real/unreal, the miniature and the gigantic, optics and illusion, the quirky, the absurd and the unconventional. The juror of this less than ordinary exhibit is, Silvia Karman Cubiñá, the Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Bass Museum of Art in Miami, Florida.

“Fun House 2021: Art of the Surreal, Fantastic, & Bizarre” presents XX artists interpreting wide-ranging and updated notions of this 20th century art movement—from dreamlike and fanciful to eerie and bizarre to xxx and grotesque. A number of artists nod quite literally to surrealistic forms and subject matter, more specifically, by intervening the figure using collage-like techniques reminiscent of “exquisite corps” and other surrealistic games. In other instances, artists create abstracted forms, whether organic or geometric, that are reminiscent of chance and the unconscious mind.

Encompassing digital art, sculpture, ceramics, painting and textile, works of art in Fun House perhaps respond to a year like no other in a generation. It is not possible to view these works of art separate from the context of a year impacted by a global pandemic, financial devastation and racial unrest and how the works perhaps manifest fear, uncertainties, grief, loneliness, joy, and desire in a year like no other. The work, for the most part, mirrors the myriad of collective anxieties of a country and a world during an unprecedented time that is still playing out.” 

SILVIA KARMAN CUBIÑÁ

Executive Director & Chief Curator, Bass Museum of Art, Miami

I am honored to announce that I was recently awarded a Working Artist Grant/Art Purchase Award. I'm also thrilled that the sculpture the committee voted to acquire are from my personal favorite body of work, Fiber Fetishes.

The Fiber Fetishes explore the intricate web in/of our reproductive bodies and throughout the natural world. A tangle of coital life, I observe the animate and inanimate—­ovaries, stamens, fertility fetishes, sex toys and contraceptive devices. I endeavor to meld the endless labyrinth of time and sensual memory through repetitive wrapping and stitching. —­Suzanna Scott, 2017

Working Artist Org. (b.2008) of Tacoma, WA is a privately run and backed micro-grant project, devoted to the acknowledgement and promotion of great contemporary art and artists. The Working Artist Grant/Art Purchase Award is a one-time art award intended to disperse small but vitalizing bursts of funding to support an artist's ongoing art making process. This award is available to all artists worldwide, working in all traditional and new visual arts mediums, including but not limited to: conceptual, installation, drawing, painting, prints, sculpture, glass, mixed media, new media, photography and video.

Curators: Kaylan Buteyn and Pam Marlene Taylor 

Featured Artists: Noelle Dederer, Rotem Reshef, Nicole Mazza, Emily Gaines Demsky, Deirdre Colgan Jones, Rora Blue, Melissa Maddonni Haims, NE Weaves, Shannon Rae Lindsey, Amy S. Broderick, Molly McCracken, Lynne Smith, Natalie Harrison, Lina Tharsing, Emily Harris, Ashley Hamilton, Alicia Thompson, Monica Marshall, Virginia Griswold, Hannah Burnworth, Jill Lavetsky, Liberty Worth, Ann Cofta, Grace Summanen, Leah Foushee Waller, Julia Colletes, Victoria Smits, Shaina Gates, Julia Madeline Koreman, Arielle Rebek, Bettina Harvey, Andrea Myers, Injoo Whang, Stefanie Lynn Hendra, Aynslee Moon Smithee, Rebecca Shapass, Emery Kate Tillman, Cassie Guy, Caroline Kelley, Emily Gibbons, Michele Randall, Danielle Winger, Jacqueline Bell Johnson, Amanda Brazier, Suzanna Scott, Cheryl Zibisky, and Nicole Condon-Shih

Started in 2020 as an online curation project between Kaylan Buteyn and Pam Marlene Taylor to highlight women and non-binary artists creating art in the global quarantine, Stay Home Gallery evolved into a brick and mortar house-gallery and artist residency in Paris, TN. Inspired by the work coming from artists in isolation, Stay Home Gallery gives the experience of isolated space and time to work on art to artists, without the global crisis (eventually). In an entirely unique space; a traditional home turned contemporary art gallery, Artists are encouraged to come alone, create a collaborative retreat by splitting the residency with other artist friends, or bring their partner or family.

All images in this post are courtesy of The Stay Home Gallery, 2021.

The adventurous Coin Cunts have made their way to the Spazju Kreattiv in Valletta, Malta to be part of the exhibition {v}. Curated by Lisa Gwen, the exhibit {v} is part of the museum's ongoing Art+Feminism platform. By selecting the works of fifteen artists with a range of backgrounds, and through the careful curation of a range of mediums, Gwen seeks demystify female genitalia in art and life.

Gustav Courbet’s The Origin of the World, is possibly the better-known of historic paintings, to audaciously depict and place female genitalia in the foreground of the work, thereby elevating it to subject matter. Whilst sexually charged, the anonymous woman’s body and stance, do not attain erotic or pornographic status. The work is simply a crude and unequivocal portrayal of the sinuosity of a (female) body in space, powerfully modelled and accentuated through light and shade. This is precisely how and why {v} was conceived, as an overdue attempt to both celebrate and demystify the female form, by overtly choosing to portray the vagina in literal, or abstracted terms, or even by connotation. The collective multi-media visual exhibition, will be accompanied by ancillary events, such as talks and screenings which shall both foster and encourage debate and dialogue on, and surrounding the subject.   -Liza Gwen, curator

All exhibition images courtesy of Stephanie Sherwood, 2018.