Carleton College’s Perlman Teaching Museum, located in the Weitz Center for Creativity, will be hold a special reception from 7:30 to 9 p.m. on Friday, January 20 to formally celebrate the new art exhibition, “A Complex Weave: Women and Identity in Contemporary Art.” On display in the museum’s Braucher Gallery through March 11, the exhibit looks at the ongoing vitality of the feminist movement in art with works by contemporary female artists of varied backgrounds. The reception is free and open to the public.
Along with light refreshments, the reception will also feature a guided tour of the exhibition at 8 p.m., led by Martin Rosenberg, a professor of art history at Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey. Rosenberg co-curated “A Complex Weave” along with J. Susan Isaacs, a professor of art history at Towson University in Maryland.
“A Complex Weave” explores ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation and other aspects of identity through drawing, painting, sculpture, needlework and photography. Contemporary artists whose work is featured in the exhibition include Blanka Amezkua, Sarah Amos, Helene Aylon, Siona Benjamin, Zoe Charlton, Sonya Clark, Annet Couwenberg, Lalla A. Essaydi, Judy Gelles, Sharon Harper, Julie Harris, Fujiko Isomura, Tatiana Parcero, Philemona Williamson, April Wood, and Flo Oy Wong. The exhibition seeks to reaffirm the strength of feminism in a new century in which issues of personal identities seem increasingly intricate and critical.
The exhibition is divided into five thematic sections. In “Images and Text (Superimpositions),” Aylon, Essaydi and Parcero seek to deconstruct standard conventions of gender through a mixture of images and texts. In “Complex Geographies (Hybrids),” Benjamin, Amos and Isomura draw on their varied experiences as immigrants to the United States to create complex images of modern female identity. In “The Female Body (Pushing the Boundaries),” Charlton, Harper and Amezkua engage the controversial and multifaceted image of the female form. In “Childhood and Family (Relationships),” Gelles, Wong and Williamson explore issues of heritage and history. And in “Accessories (Clothing and Related Objects),” Couwenberg, Clark, Harris and Wood invoke the female body and female experience through personal objects rendered with unexpected and eloquent materials.
For more information, including disability accommodations, contact Laurel Bradley at (507) 222-4342 or visit online at https://apps.carleton.edu/museum/. The Weitz Center for Creativity is located at 320 Third Street East in Northfield. Hours for the Perlman Teaching Museum are: Monday-Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday-Friday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Saturday-Sunday, 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Enter the Perlman Teaching Museum, Weitz Center for Creativity, at Third and College Streets.
