On view March 11– April 30, 2022

Opening reception: Friday, March 11, 5-9 PM

Uncontested, a group exhibition celebrating Women’s History Month, will be on view at SLA Art Space from March 11– April 30 2022. Curated by Francine Rogers and Natsuki Takauji, the exhibition showcases works by fourteen female and non-binary artists from various backgrounds, cultures and countries, expressing diverse observations and viewpoints on humanity, relationships, and ongoing challenges facing women as both the artists and a subject matter. Works in the exhibition take a bold look at topics of resistance and acceptance, beauty, body, identity, violence, and equality. The artists speak freely through the variety of mediums and techniques – including painting, drawing, sculpture, installation and video – united by expression that is bonding, inclusive, expansive, and free.

A number of artists connect their unique pasts with their familial or societal experiences of the present to create works that are rich in narrative. Bruna D’Allesandro’s “Breast Book” narrates the steps of creating a beautiful metal breast, connecting the dimension of knowledge and learning, with those of body forms and of intimacy. Stephanie Mulvihill’s current series of drawings use the body as a storytelling device in which to process personal tragedies and moments of shared experience. Ingrid Butterer’s video performance “Milk Hole/Milk Stream” stands as a metaphor for mother in the vortex of domestic violence.  Rachel Aisenson’s works from her series “Lady Monsters” feature monstrous self-portraits created using pens, watercolors and cosmetics. Yeon Ji Yoo’s “Distant Landscapes” investigates personal fears, informed by conversations about environmental distress and ideas of immigration, memory and home. Magdalena Dukiewicz’s “This is my body, this is my blood” from her ongoing series of handmade sculptures that replicate the shapes of domestic objects references the transformation of a domestic object into a weapon of domestic violence and the objectification of women on private (personal) and sociopolitical levels. Sigita R.P.’s “Monotypes” capture the mood and balance of an ordinary evening. Sarah E. Brook's relief sculptures are sites of meeting: grounded gestures are held and contextualized through an expansive field. Zhen Guo’s installation “The Mountain Wears the Crown of the Soul” explores her Chinese heritage and an inherently female perspective on modern society, communicating the vastness of mountain ranges, deep valleys, and wide fields and also undulating folds of the female body. Annesofie Sandal’s drawings and glazed stoneware pieces were started in a daze of exhaustion and gratitude from the total experience of being a new mother, and in extension her infinite awe of the female body’s ability to create, carry, birth and nurture new life. Natsuki Takauji’s“Goodbye, My Chrysanthemum” is an homage to her girlhood which she outgrew, yet still somewhat containing herself in. This self-portrayal dress-like sculpture describes her raw sentiments and trauma, hangs from a hanger as an object, at the same time, a life. Rasa Vaisvilaite’s series “From the Floating House” reflect on the time spent living in a small floating house tied by a creaking bridge to a minuscule, remote, yet breathtakingly beautiful island at the coast of Norway in the North Sea, a time of social isolation in her life, which was met with both suffering and cleanse. Claire Pauwels works with salvaged worm-riddled wood from centuries-old barns, and rusted metal rescued from dumpsters by schools that teach pot-making, locksmithing and blacksmithing, concentrating on balance and harmony between shapes and the way they interact with each other. Deborah Tint’s “Lefty Flame Fairy” is part of her series of works depicted female figures who are self-possessed and self-defining, embodying power without dominance power, featuring Lefty Lucy, a burlesque performer based in New Orleans.

UNCONTESTED, is open Fridays and Saturdays from 4 to 7 pm and by appointment.

Please note, in compliance with New York law, proof of vaccination, as well as an I.D., will be required upon entry.