"Beauty Contest" Exhibition
Austrian Cultural Forum NYC
This event has ended.
"Beauty Contest" deals with one of the most trivial everyday experiences: the daily encounter with human beauty and its social construction. A perennial anthropologic subject dating back to the writings of ancient Greek philosophers the exhibition will present critical viewpoints of some of the most antiquated notions of universal beauty. Evidence from the sexual revolution and feminism, as well as the gay, lesbian and transgender movements have eroded clear definitions of who and what is beautiful– and who and what is not. Through their artworks the artists examine the emancipation of hidden structures of repression toward gender, race, and age.
The artworks, which include videos, paintings, sculptures, installations, and performance art, are drawn from the self-examination, self-perception, and self-definition of the individual artists, many of whom are influenced by female avant-garde artists such as Austrian artist Maria Lassnig and New York based Cindy Sherman.
"Beauty Contest" is curated by Andreas Stadler, Berthold Ecker, and Claude Grunitzky, with assistance from Natascha Boojar and Roland Fink.
[Image: Katarina Schmidl "A Beautiful Piece of Austria" (2002) sculpture made of straws 13.7 x 14.5 x 14.5 in.]
Media
Schedule
from September 21, 2011 to January 03, 2012
Opening Reception on 2011-09-20 from 18:00 to 20:00
Artist(s)
Clarina Bezzola, Petra Buchegger, Mehmet Emir, Leslie De Melo, Sissi Farassat, Matthias Herrmann, Anna Jermolaewa, Birgit Jürgenssen, Jakob Lena Knebl, Evangelia Kranioti / Victor Dzenk, Maria Lassnig, Kalup Linzy, Muntean/Rosenblum, Lisl Ponger, Rashaad Newsome, Maria Petschnig, Katarina Schmidl, Cindy Sherman