"Our Hands on Each Other"
June 3 - July 15, 2010
Women and Their Work Gallery
Gallery hours are Monday through Friday 10am to 6pm, Saturday Noon to 5pm.
1710 Lavaca Street
Austin, TX 78701
512.477.1064 (t)
Opening Reception Thursday, June 3, 6 to 8 pm
Community Discussion: Thursday, June 24th at 7pm "A Brief History of Queer Space" Join us for a conversation with artist Leah DeVun and Dr. Lisa Moore Associate Professor of English and Women's and Gender Study, UT and the author of the forthcoming "Sister Arts: Lesbian Genres and the Erotic Landscape" (Minnesota 2011).
Leah DeVun's photographic series draws its title from a quotation from Lesbian Land, a published collection of writings by lesbians who founded or lived in women's intentional communities, sometimes called "womyn's lands," in the 1970s-80s. With this show DeVun takes the history of Women & their Work as a jumping off point to ask viewers to consider the nature of queer and feminist space in the past and present. Rita Starpattern, a co-founder of Women & Their Work in 1978 was a lesbian and the gallery was known as an inclusive alternative art space. Many marginalized groups were forming their own spaces at this time as a result of feeling shut out of main stream institutions. There were once many spaces and zines dedicated to feminist activism and artwork, but few survive now. DeVun asks: what did a feminist collective space look like three decades ago? What does one look like now?
DeVun's work combines documentary and staged photography in an effort to collapse and interweave the different generations of lesbian/ transgender/queer people who have been involved in the creation of feminist space, as well as to picture the relationship between utopian ideals and hard-fought reality. Some of her photographs use queer models to recreate images from 1970s lesbian feminist zines such as Country Women, Lesbian Tide, Lesbian Connection, Sinister Wisdom, Dyke, Womanspirit, and other publications. Other photographs were taken on womyn's lands that are still in existence, evoking the tension between community and isolation that is part of living on lands that are often in remote rural areas.
On the night of the opening several actors will construct a new collective women's space (in the form of a wood structure) together as a performance piece. Tools will be put out and viewers may be asked to contribute work to this historical reenactment. In addition to her photographs and portraits, DeVun has made light boxes inspired by vintage photographs of street marchers and protesters. These photographs are political and anthemic, an homage to the impressive energy of feminists in the 1970s.
Levi Dugat and Leah DeVun
"Your Heart is Not a Museum" at Domy.
Opening Reception September 12, 7-9 pm
Recommended in ...might be good.
New American Talent 24 has been extended to September 6th so if you haven't seen it yet you still have another week to catch it!
http://www.arthousetexas.org
"New American Talent: The Twenty-Fourth Exhibition" by Wayne Alan Brenner, Austin Chronicle August 7, 2009
"Girl Scouts Do Photo Shoot with Leah DeVun" on the Arthouse Blog.
"Artist's Space: Leah DeVun" by Dan Boehl in ...might be good, Issue #124, June 19, 2009
BEAUTY KNOWS NO PAIN
O. Rufus Lovett and Leah DeVun
February 27, 200 – March 29, 2009
Opening Reception:
February 27, 2009 6-9pm at Houston Center for Photography
Borrowing its title from the 1972 documentary by Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt and the slogan of the Kilgore Rangerettes, Beauty Knows No Pain addresses the perception of femininity in contemporary American culture.
Texas photographer O. Rufus Lovett’s celebrated black and white photographs of the Kilgore Rangerettes dance drill team reveal a long-standing tradition of discipline and teamwork towards the achievement of youthful glamour, uniformity, and synchronicity.
Emerging artist Leah DeVun’s color portraits of young Houston girls dressed up as Hannah Montana depict a subset of popular culture fixated on emulating a young female icon. This juxtaposition probes at the varied performative rituals of young American women and girls who, regardless of their socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, desire to embrace celebrity and femininity.
This exhibition is made possible in part thanks to a Mayor’s Initiative Grant, City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance and an Anonymous donor.
Note: The Kilgore Rangerettes will also be performing at the Museum of Fine Arts Brown Auditorium on Thursday, February 26 at 6.30 pm.
From Women & Their Work in Austin:
Announcing W&TW’s NWBA Series Artists!
The wait is over! We’ve selected the five artists that will comprise our New Work Bold Artists Series.
A little about the NWBA Series: Starting in 2010, Women & Their Work gallery will hold five solo exhibitions a year. For this new solo series, we asked art professionals across the state to nominate groundbreaking Texas artists. Each artist will receive a stipend for their exhibition, along with the opportunity to work with a specially selected curatorial advisor and a four-color brochure designed for the exhibition. A panel composed of previously exhibited W&TW artists and W&TW staff completed the final selection process and the results are in!
Congratulations Leah DeVun, Kathryn Kelley , Karen Mahaffy, Kia Neill and Virginia Yount!