CEPA Gallery is proud to announce the opening of Deviant Bodies 2.0 with a reception for the artists and public Friday, September 29 during Buffalois Curtain Up! Celebration from (7:00 – Midnight). This exhibition runs through December 17, 2006 and was curated by Lawrence Brose and J.R. Martin-Alexander.
Deviant Bodies 2.0 is perhaps the most groundbreaking and comprehensive exhibition in the history of contemporary art to explore the margins of gender and representation by presenting work through the multiple lenses of Transgender, Genderqueer and Gender Variant perspectives. A companion to CEPAis critically acclaimed 2004 project Deviant Bodies, voted Best Art Exhibit of the Year by ArtVoice and earning the Gallery a 2005 Empire State Pride Agenda Community Service Award, this complex exhibition investigates ideas and speaks to issues and perspectives rarely made public.
The Trans community runs the gamut of self expression. It is very different to be a white trans-person, a trans-person of color, a teenager, or a 40 year old. With these different points of view come numerous different notions of what it means to be a man, a woman, in-between, and beyond. Deviant Bodies 2.0 presents a range of perspectives and experiences intersecting with issues of race, class, age, ability, sex, sexuality, and nationality, to show Transgendered individuals as they truly are; angry, sexy, introspective, queer, and not like everyone else.
Transgender people are all too often presented as victims or medical oddities in the mainstream culture. There are numerous popular ideas and expectations about what a trans-person looks like and how they are supposed to behave. They are presented on CNN telling Larry King how they are just like everyone else, on Law and Order killing someone to protect their secret identity, or on the medical channel having reconstructive surgery to feel complete. Deviant Bodies 2.0 presents a different view. It is a timely look at Transgender people as something other than body, but rather as individuals proud of themselves, their experiences, and their need not to conform.
Deviant Bodies 2.0 takes the medical community and popular culture out of the Trans experience to allow individual people an opportunity to acknowledge and claim their bodies as their own.
Deviant Bodies 2.0 opens with a reception, free and open to the public, Friday, September 29, 2006 from 7:00p.m. n Midnight. The exhibition runs through December 17, 2006.
Founded in 1974, CEPA Gallery is a comprehensive not-for-profit art center dedicated to promoting the photo-related and electronic arts. With programming including visual art exhibitions, artist residencies, and education, CEPA strives to foster the creation and presentation of new work, educate the region to contemporary art trends, and encourage a continuous dialogue between artists and community. CEPA Gallery is located in the Market Arcade Complex at 617 Main Street in the heart of the Theatre District.
The exhibit includes photography, video, and installation work by 13 artists: Tobaron Waxman (Toronto, Canada) De LaGrace Volcano (London, UK) Sandy Stone (Austin, TX) Philipe Lonestar (Oakland, CA) Francesca Galliani (Milan, Italy) Linn Underhill (Lisle, NY) Jana Marcus (Santa Cruz, CA) Mirha Soleil-Ross (Montreal, Cananda) Emmett Ramstad (Minneapolis, MN) Jay Sennett (Ypsilanti, MI) Jaishri Abichandani (NYC, NY) Tara Mateik (NYC, NY) Michela Ledwidge (London, UK). Deviant Bodies 2.0 will also present a lecture and reading by Emi Koyama (Portland, Oregon). Artist biois and statements are attached.
CEPA Gallery i 617 Main Street, Suite 201 i Buffalo, NY 14203 i 716.856.2717
info@cepagallery.com i www.cepagallery.com
Lead Image: Diaspora, NYC; Tisha b’Av
Tobaron Waxman, Toronto, Ontario
Diaspora, NYC; Tisha b’Av shows two male bodies as mutually actualizing systems of inscription. The yeshiva haircut and the mastectomy scars are the narratives they are writing on and with their bodies.
Tobaron Waxmanis artwork explores the intersection between Orthodox Judaism and F/M Trans experience. He will be exhibiting a number of photographs from several projects.
Following image: Here are a few images of Jana Marcusi award winning project n this is the first time these images have been seen outside of the west coast. It a very compelling project. We will be featuring 20 of these pieces