The Contested Body
December 23, 2017 - February 10, 2019
G373
Free Exhibition
Contemporary artists approach the human body not as a fixed and stable entity, but rather as a fluid, contested site for the creation of meaning. The works in this exhibition present the varied expressions of gender, race, and sexuality not as biological givens but as cultural constructs performed through everyday actions and mannerisms. “The Contested Body” features loaned objects and recent acquisitions of work by artists Emma Amos, Sadie Benning, Sharon Hayes, George Segal, Lorna Simpson, Martin Wong, and Portia Zvavahera, among others in which the body is reimagined as a site of agency, empowerment, celebration, and struggle in an attempt to encompass the complexity and multiplicity of the human condition.
Sadie Benning
American, born 1973
Bess, 2016
Aqua resin, wood casein, photographs, digital photographs
Gift of funds from Mary and Bob Mersky and the Marguerite S. McNally Endowment for Art Acquisition 2017.38