From the press release…sounds pretty swell!
What She Said: Wisconsin Photography Now
EFFJAY PROJEKTS Gallery, Frank Juarez-owner, Sheboygan, WI.
Curated by Jessica Z Schafer and William Zuback
Wisconsin women photographers show their diversity of vision, connected through the lens of identity exploration in relation to society’s expectations.
EFFJAY PROJEKTS Gallery in Sheboygan, Wisconsin presents What She Said: Wisconsin Photography Now, showcasing the photography of four outstanding contemporary women fine art photographers. Their work forms a quartet of unique perspectives connected by their investigation into the meaning of identity in today’s society. Jessica Z Schafer and William Zuback co-curated this fresh approach and view of photography now by concentrating only on women photographers. Jessie Eisner-Kleyle, Jessica Kaminski, Jenaille Northey and Nicole Peaslee bring their expressive visual narratives to this exhibition.
Jessie Eisner-Kleyle explores womanhood through the objects that define femininity. For her series of photographs We Were Not Born Women, she paired images with stories collected from women across the country about the diverse items that signaled their transition into womanhood. This series implores the viewer to look at the construct of gender, because it is a construction. “Even the participants who weren’t girly girls, but were tomboys, still have a story of that moment, that instant when they discovered their feminine mystique and they felt right,” states Eisner-Kleyle.
Jessica Kaminski examines the meaning of home, and how different her own life experience has been from the model of a “traditional” home established by her childhood. Her images from The Home Project attempt to challenge, and invite discussion about what gets to be home, and poignantly, the moments where we are uncertain of a solid sense of place and belonging.
Jenaille Northey turns her attention to expectations about love and desire depicted in the romance novel genre. By warping images from these books through a convex glass surface, Northey’s series of images, Love Letters, creates vivid distortions that blur the boundaries of true love and fiction, revealing reality’s shortcomings and fantasy’s absurdities.
Nicole Peaslee uses elements of the natural world as a metaphor to the imperfections of humanity, relationships and the individual. The photographs in Fractures peel away the false layers created to protect us from society’s challenges, connecting humans to one another and to our natural environment.
Women artists are still underrepresented in the art world. Often making up less than 25% of artists exhibiting in major museums and galleries. Just this year, women made up only 30% of the artists chosen for the 2012 Whitney Biennial. This discrepancy is also common in Wisconsin, where group photography exhibitions often focus on male photographers. What She Said celebrates the work of these four remarkable women artists who offer an in-depth exploration of identity in today’s society through the lenses of female contemporary photographers.
Alongside “What She Said: Wisconsin Photography Now”, Sheboygan photographer, Richard Biemann will be exhibiting new photographs in his exhibition titled, “Through the Viewfinder: Merging Old and New”.
Richard Biemann’s photographs in this exhibition were taken in the Spring of 2012 in and around his home in Sheboygan. With a top heavy set-up in the gray days that are spring in Wisconsin, Biemann found it most convenient to place the Duaflex on the ground and use two hands to steady the cardboard tube and take the picture. The result is that all these photos were taken from a low angle.
What She Said: Wisconsin Photography Now and Through the Viewfinder: Merging Old and New run from May 24 through June 16. An artist reception and gallery talk will be held June 2 from 5-8pm. EFFJAY PROJEKTS Gallery is located at 604 Erie Avenue, Lower Level, Sheboygan, WI. 53081. For additional information please email:effjayprojekts@gmail.com.
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