(DE)CONSTRUCTING: Figurative Works from the Permanent Collection
Curated by Kyra Schmidt
Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University
October 13, 2022 - January 8, 2023
The occupation of a body is one of the very few universal experiences, the portrayal of which often attempts to convey or subvert imagined ideals of society at any given time and place. The works in this exhibition explore the gendered construction and deconstruction of the body and its representations. In dialogue, the artworks consider questions of binarism and possession in relation to scientific inquiry, societal constructs, pleasure and the act of looking. Reflecting a multitude of styles and approaches to figurative art, these works serve as an invitation to reconsider the possibilities of both the individual and collective body when untethered from the limitations encoded within a culture and society that attempt to narrowly define and contain it.
Artists in this exhibition include: Kenneth Hayes Miller, Fiona Ross, Muholi, Holly Roberts, Dean Carter, Jean Hélion, Jerome Kaplan, Edith Neff, Doris Staffel, Sally Mann, Marion Wetherill Walton, Samuel Maitin, and George Prout.
