Beyond Her Frame introduces emerging, female photographers who are revolutionizing the process, product and perception of their artistic medium. Featured artists Hannah Bates, Amanda Elam and Victoria Fornieles pursue issues of the female body and its place, mental illness and truth’s illusions with works that defy the framework of photography—let alone a frame. In an obstinately male-dominated field, these women demonstrate the power and perspective of the female lens with ingenuity and elan.

Bates challenges photography’s assumed authenticity by using life-size photographs of the “real world” to reconstruct reality within her studio. Elam’s illuminated portrait cubes portray a physical and mental confrontation with the psychological space of emotional intricacies. Fornieles presses the female form onto cultural landscapes by tearing, licking and biting her prints, while processing, exonerating imperfection and expanding the physicality of photography. The shared, sculptural quality of their works commandeers the gallery space and upends traditional perceptions of an image, as well as female presence. All three artists imbue their art with a subtle strength, playful curiosity and abiding conviction.

This exhibition examines the construction of representation through socially and lawfully imposed, arbitrary boundaries. Drawn from Polish-American philosopher and linguist Alfred Korzybski’s publication Science and Sanity, the title addresses the distinction between an entity and its abstraction. The aim is to interrogate discrepancies between reality and belief in response to the current ubiquitous use of non-sequiturs in the public arena. Conceived at the dawn of an unprecedented, divisive presidency, the exhibition upholds the spirit of resistance against misrepresentation and the commandeering of identities in our history and contemporary culture.

Curated by eight women from various countries and regions around the world, The Map Is Not the Territory applies the concept of kintsugi, a Japanese form of pottery that highlights fractures with precious metals. Selected by each curator, the artworks are singular fragments that reflect a myriad of perceptions of physical and ideological borders. Taking its cue from this repaired earthenware, the exhibition forces a cohesion of conceptual and formal differences that make them glimmer as a reconciled whole.

Some artists in the exhibition challenge historical representations of women, while others probe the construction of narratives from a sociopolitical perspective. Melanie Reese’s series Caliban and the Witch (2016) prompts the viewer to look beyond the complex veil of historical oppression of women. Kate Gilmore’s video Sudden as a Massacre (2011) demonstrates a liberated agency of physicality against the pristine, passive female stereotype. Ann Hamilton’s (aleph - video) (1992/93) asserts the primal, compulsive desire of transforming realities into words. Martine Gutierrez’s Line Up (2014) employs mannequins to question the binary notions of “genuine” and “performative” gender roles. Camille Lee’s The Game (2016) uses a childhood toy to mimic the precarious relations between social issues. Anh Thuy Nguyen’s Of Place and Nation (2017) addresses the migrational displacement between political identity and personal memories. Brittany Cassell’s paintings are an intergenerational inquiry into how cultural history and collective memory shape individual identity and experience. Roberto Vega’s site-specific “cracks” present history as a result of intractable forces in territorial conflicts. Helene Nymann’s trancelike video Whether We Are (2016) portrays how one’s environment gradually transforms one’s psychological self. Bita Razavi’s Coloring Book for Concerned Adults (2017) questions official representation of data by playfully allowing alternative versions.

All works question our preconceived understandings of entities, whether it is people, places or concepts, by subverting misrepresentations of reality. The resilience and resistance of these individual works are amplified in aggregate in The Map Is Not The Territory. In addition to paintings, photographs, sculptures and media art, site-specific work engages the exhibition space itself, anchoring the concept in the context of the Pfizer Building. Furthermore, the publication made for this occasion features verbal and visual elaborations of the works, their makers and the ideas from which they were born.

Curators: Birdie Piccininni, Amanda Lee, Jasa Mckenzie, Piper Ross Ferriter, Jacqueline Kok, Noelia Lecue, Natalia Viera Salgado, and Lux Yuting Bai under the direction of Sarah Demeuse

Curated by Birdie Piccininni

Artists: Claire Beckett, Hannah Harley, Zach Blas, Endia Beal, Rae Clarke Hendel, Amanda Elam

Location: Pfizer Building, 630 Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11206

Exhibition dates: April 19-May 4, 2018

Same Light, New Exposure, curated by MA Curatorial Practice fellow Birdie Piccininni. Same Light, New Exposure will provide a concentrated look at a handful of contemporary photographers who use various styles and techniques to unfold the lives of their subjects. As a society, we are inundated with enormous amounts of images with fake news, hoax photos, data mining, surveillance, and selfies, which run amok in the press and social media. Same Light, New Exposure will allow for imagery involving identity, social reform, and craftsmanship to uncover the brutality of proposed perceptions. The dialogue between artist and subject that was necessary in creating these images is a prime example of how we can and should approach the “others” in our perceived societies. This exhibition will be a reminder and space for the audience to question what is told to them, what they know, and continue the conversation of equality and inclusivity.

Same Light, New Exposure will include works from Claire Beckett, Hannah Harley, Rae Clarke Hendel, Endia Beal, Zach Blas, and Amanda Elam. This group of artists pushes back against complacency by slowing down their artistic process and utilizing technologies available to them to establish a profound exchange with their subjects. Beckett’s journey with her project The Converts (2013-present) fuels her remarkable compilations of intimacy, which exudes from these portraits and grew from the relationships Beckett has built with the community, religion, and individuals of her work. Harley will have an interactive installation of her portrait project Statecraft (2017), which explores the politicization of the self to dissect how individual's presentation is a political act. Hendel’s mixture of photography, painting, embroidery, and cloth in her ongoing series, Women Identified Work, approaches portraiture as a way to express the layers and textures of individuals, quite literally. Beal’s Am I What You’re Looking For? (2016) features young women of color who are transitioning from academia to the corporate world; capturing their struggles and fears of being themselves in corporate America. As an examination of the dehumanization behind biometrics, this exhibition will feature Blas’ video portraits from Face Cages (2013-16) through metal face cages that the individuals wear in endurance performance. Elam will be performing live studio sessions with the audience as a continuance of her project I remember it, but I can’t be sure it happened (2015) which is a reminder to us reassess what we believe to be true and how we should question constructed realities.

The artists represented in Same Light, New Exposure address a range of subject matter but all share a similar message through collaboration and work with their subjects to reclaim power. Same Light, New Exposure will bring together artists who conquer a relationship between a subtle sweetness and depth of the face. Light may be necessary to expose a negative or digital capture, but within the genre of portraiture, these artists also use light to expose stories that would otherwise go unnoticed. Employing the history of photographic portraiture, these contemporary artists, working with the powerful techniques and tools available to them today, are creating works with the same light, resulting in a new exposure.