CVD art exhibition explores womanhood

 

Until July 2, the CVD Framers Art Gallery is resplendent with works in different mediums celebrating the strength, beauty, resilience, and creativity of woman with an exhibition showcasing art about women, for women by local women artists.

With close to 80 works on display, submitted by more than 20 Buffalo City artists, the pieces explore the intimate complexity of womanhood, which historically has been a maligned and underinvested subject in artistic expression for generations.

Included in the exhibition is work by Lorna Manthe, Mandy Qomoyoi, Juliet Grieg, Nadine Haynes and others.

The pieces draw inspiration from the connection between women and nature and highlight the fecundity of women’s ability to create life and to channel their own potential.

Qomoyoi’s ceramic pieces, for example, celebrate the beauty in community that is at the core of women’s relationships to the world around them. With its reference to various styles of tea sets, Qomoyoi’s work evokes feelings of safety, warmth, belonging and interconnection — all values associated with women that have not necessarily always been respected or celebrated.

Women’s labour and achievements, whether emotional, domestic, professional and personal  has been trivialised for centuries and art that speaks directly to the need to celebrate women’s contributions is important in undoing mainstream disrespect and neglect of women especially within the arts.

The pieces also demonstrate the wealth of talent amongst women artists in the city across different mediums, from mixed media to oil painting marking women’s presence in art forms that once were strictly considered the domain of men.

CVD Framers said: “In the arts scene there is a history of undervaluing female artists and female accomplishments, which is evidenced by the lack of emphasis placed on promoting women’s art and this exhibition seeks to disrupt this legacy of old school principals.

“We wanted to create an exhibition in which there is humour and lament for the struggles that women face in the silence of their own stories. We hope viewers are inspired by the perspectives of women artists.

“We also hope that the exhibition encourages women artists to foster a stronger sense of inner confidence which is often difficult to maintain in an industry that maligns women’s contributions.

“We want viewers celebrate in the beauty of women they see reflected in the pieces and we want to empower and remind women of their strength and fortitude.”

Just before 2020, according to Britain’s Tate Gallery, 51% of visual artists were women, yet 78% of the galleries represent more men than women.

At most art galleries in SA, the statistics are heavily skewed against female artists in terms of representation, which means that the opportunities for their work to be exhibited are rare.

Writing on the importance of celebrating art by women in 2016, JR Thorpe said: “The dearth of female artists who’ve achieved the big time, in sales, reputation, academic attention or general acclaim, isn’t down to innate incapability or divergence of talent.

“It’s been a progressive, structural issue.

“Giving money [and exhibition space] to good female-made art gives it legitimacy, and creates the basis for structures to change.”

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