Happy International Womxn's Day and welcome to our inclusive gallery space.
The 7 artists below have been handpicked by MARCH from a group of 40 artist submissions from around the world. For additional information about the artists you can click on their names. Also note, when indicated please click on image to be directed to external viewing video link. Special thanks to artists Elizabeth Barry, Karina Ikezoe, and Karina Curlewis for participating on selection panel and for providing guidance to featured artists.
These selected artists show work that is challenging, thought provoking, beautiful, and representative of a distinctly womxn perspective/gaze.
All work is for sale. You can enquire by clicking here.
VISUAL ARTISTS
KATHRYN KOST (USA)ARTIST STATEMENT
Intertwining the organic natures of art with my own health concerns, I am following natural methods and materials in an attempt to replace harmful materials and create a deeper understanding of art using alternative materials. In the past few years, I have become highly sensitive to the materials I use. My decision to use naturally-made inks not only aids in my personal health, but supports the organic motif of my work. The idea of the organic can take place in nature as well as in a lifestyle. It implies positivity and lucidity, which is something I try to transfer into my work when considering subjects like illness and disease. Diseases often instill fear into society, making them icons without imagery. After beginning research on numerous diseases, I attempted to create imagery for them. I found that slides of cells were often less frightening than what they caused, so I make my interpretations loosely, hoping to make viewers more comfortable with what organisms like bacteria or disease can be. Considering what takes place in and out of the body, I attempt to create a sense of space where the macroscopic and microscopic worlds hold tension with each other, pulling the viewer in for closer inspection, only to expand beyond the boundaries of a canvas. The subject is able to form its own identity through the alternative materials I use, whether they become topographical land forms or cellular, ephemeral bodies. These alternative materials include homemade inks from fruits, vegetables, and spices, as well as collected eggshells. With the inclusion of these substitute resources, I hope to create a safer practice for myself as well as allow for a deeper connection with my subject matter. |
SARALENE TAPLEY ( USA)ARTIST STATEMENT: PEOPLE, PAINT, PROCESS
For the majority of my artistic career, I’ve been interested in communicating my human experience through different forms of visual language, mostly through direct painting and mark making. I’ve tried to understand ideas of human emotion and physical form through expressions of my imagination. I am an artist, like many, who has never been apt at understanding people and often struggle with human interaction. I have used painting to try to decode the psychology of my subjects as well as myself. The work I am presenting in this exhibition, which I have entitled ‘People, Paint and Process,’ is a selection of figure studies models I have painted during 2019. This work is both a celebration of figurative studies as well as a promotion of body acceptance. I spent 2014 through 2016 at The New York Academy of Art obtaining my MFA studying anatomy, portraiture, life drawing, contemporary art studies and art history. At this time, I also developed an interest in monotype printmaking. (Monotypes are single edition prints of paintings in which the original painting is transformed through the pressing of the print.) I enjoy the spontaneity and surprise that the process offers. This exhibition features both paintings and monotype prints which are both rooted in the direct painting process. I love being able to communicate through the visual arts. The 2D surface of a work of art has always been my safe place to let my imagination run free without consequences or restraints . In addition, it is a place where I can process and regurgitate visual information in different and interesting ways, something I thoroughly enjoy. |
NOFAR HOROVITZ (ISRAEL)
ARTIST STATEMENT: TIES OF PERCEPTION
Ties of Perception is a chronological ongoing self-portrait series describing the physical and mental processing of trauma from an uncensored state of mind. The series evolved through the recovering from sexual assault, bringing up the issues of body image, womanhood, female empowerment and coping with stress and trauma. My hope with these images is to bring awareness by manifesting tension between the body and the elements, the ropes, landscapes, and lighting. My aim is to share an intimate journey towards eventual release. |
INSTALLATION/ VIDEO/ THEATRE ARTISTS
TIANYI ZHANG (CHINA)ARTIST STATEMENT: 99 AGREEMENTS
In 99 Agreements, Zhang plays 99 different female characters. They are doing different things on different occasions, while constantly repeating, “Yes”. Some are talking to others pleasurably, some are muttering by themselves nervously, some are helpless and in pain. When combined, these voices build a full spectrum of emotion. In this project, Zhang explores the meaning of a spoken habit through the scenes of 99 women's lives, especially discussing the relation of consent to female identity. The audience may interpret the various scenes and their multiple implications especially in regard to career association and linguistic expression. |
DAVINA LEE COOKE (UK/HK)ARTIST STATEMENT: THE ABORTION (VERBATIM/FILM)
Seven women interviewed with one question: “What do you remember the day of your abortion?”. Davina Cooke strips each woman’s transcripts apart at every 7th line and presents the piece with 7 actresses, they deliver the verbatim script with no intention. The unattached, expressionless voice with torn apart script echoes the sterile act, the loneliness and personal tone in each woman's story. There are seven mirrors to represent each woman interviewed. |
MOVEMENT BASED ARTISTS
LEYLA REES (UK) ARTIST STATEMENT: (WORKS IN PROGRESS)
Leyla’s artistic practice lies in combining an embodied physical knowledge with a conceptual approach and exploring this through different artistic mediums. Leyla studied at both Central Saint Martin’s School of Art and Design and The Northern School of Contemporary Dance and has been a professional performer for the last fifteen years. Leyla’s work centres around the figure and the body in motion. Her extensive physical background has led her to focus on exploring, first the creating, and then the recording of movement; whether that be through film, aerial, dance, drawing or performance art. The relationship between the creating and recording processes are a constant stimulus for her work. She now offers creative direction and choreography for others as well as creating her own work. |
JESSE JING (UK/MALAYSIA)ARTIST STATEMENT: PIECES OF ME: THE FIRST MEMORY
What does it mean to live in a society that demands the woman’s identity and role to be multiplicitous? “Pieces of Me: The First Memory” is a short dance film that journeys through the multiplex of ingrained values, experiences, and thoughts between two women from two very different backgrounds- one from a matriarchal society, and the other, a child of patriarchy; two opposites yet balanced on a single spectrum. The film’s multiplicitous aesthetic and dynamic is influenced by Laban’s effort graph from Laban Movement Analysis. |