Sigalit Landau, Barbed Hula (detail)
The Body in Women's Art Now: Embodied: Part 1
Sigalit Landau, Regina José Galindo, Jessica Lagunas and Lydia Maria Julien12 October to 20 January 2010
Venue : ROLLO Contemporary Art travelling to New Hall Art Collection, University of Cambridge Exhibition Open Mon -Fri 9.30 - 6pm, Saturdays in December 11am - 5pm
The Body in Women’s Art Now
Three travelling exhibitions curated by Philippa Found. An accompanying exhibition catalogue with essays by Philippa Found and Dr Harriet Riches is available for sale through ROLLO Contemporary Art
Exhibition Part 1: Embodied
Artists: Sigalit Landau (British Israeli) Regina Jose Galindo (Guatemalan) Jessica Lagunas (Guatemalan)
Lydia Maria Julien (British)
Exhibition Venues: ROLLO Contemporary Art, London and New Hall Art Collection, Cambridge
Date: 15th October – 20th January (ROLLO), 30th January – 28th February 2010 (New Hall Art Collection)
Image: Sigalit Landau, Barbed Hula, 2000, video, courtesy of the artist and ROLLO Contemporary Art
Throughout the history of art women and the body have had an entwined and shifting relationship; from the female nude being the most depicted object of the male artist’s creation, to women artists using their own bodies in art to reclaim possession of its imaging, and the birth of ‘feminist art’ in the 1960s. Today in a supposedly post-feminist generation, what issues are women artists expressing through the body? Philippa Found of ROLLO Contemporary Art presents The Body In Women’s Art Now- Embodied; a three part series of touring art exhibitions examining women’s art of the last decade in which the body is central, suggesting key characteristics and issues surrounding the body in women’s art today.
There has been much analysis of the body in women’s art created in the 1960s and 1970s, or else reviewing the ‘second generation’ women artists of the 1980s and 1990s, The Body In Woman’s Art Now- Embodied, looks exclusively at work created since the year 2000, aiming to plot a new generation of women body practice from around the world; up-dating and extending the academic study.
Presenting the works of internationally renowned women artists alongside up and coming artists, in a range of media; photography, video, performance, painting, sculpture, the exhibitions will suggest some key themes in the use of the body in women’s art today; suggesting what is new and specific to the 21st century.
Exhibition Part One, Embodied, includes iconic works such as Sigalit Landau’s video ‘Barbed Hula’ 2000, and Regina José Galindo’s ‘Who Can Erase The Traces’, which won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale in 2005. Part 2 will follow in April 2010 will part 3 in September 2010.
A three part book, The Body In Women’s Art Now, including original essays by art historians will be published by ROLLO Contemporary Art to accompany the exhibition series and contribute to the academic study.
The exhibitions will tour; premiering at ROLLO Contemporary Art and travel to New Hall Art Collection Cambridge, the public exhibition space and home to the largest collection of women’s art in the UK, second only in the world to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington.
Philippa Found is passionate that in a male dominated art-world it is important to give a space to important women practitioners, to cement their position in the contemporary art world’s consciousness. A recent article in the Guardian noted that women artists represent only 12% of the entire Tate Modern collection. Moreover, the last all women artist group exhibition to be held in a major UK public space was in 1993 (Bad Girls at the ICA)
The topic is growing in momentum; the current exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Paris - elles@pompidou – is the largest all female art exhibition in the world. Two recent major public exhibitions in the U.S. were devoted exclusively to reviewing women art practice; WACK at M.O.C.A and Global Feminisms at Brookyn Museum. The Body In Women’s Art Now aims to contribute to this current dialogue; giving women’s art greater visibility in the UK and updating the academic study of the body in art from the perspective of women artists from 2000 - 2009.
For further details or images please contact; Yasmin Amaratunga, +44(0)207 580 0020 yasmin@rolloart.com or Philippa Found on philippa@rolloart.com
The Exhibition Schedule and Details
Part I: Embodied: Sigalit Landau, Regina Jose Galindo, Jessica Lagunas, Lydia Maria Julien
15th October – 30th January ROLLO Contemporary Art, London
30th January – 28th February 2010 travelling to New Hall Art Collection
Catalogue essays by Harriet Riches and Philippa Found
The exhibition examines the re-emergence of the physical body as the site of art making in the last decade –examining the use of violence and ritualistic practice, challenges of endurance, and the relationship between artist and viewer’s body. Examining the diverse social and political issues the body has been used to communicate.
Sigalit Landau: internationally acclaimed Sigalit Landau represented Israel in the 1997 Venice Biennale. She has shown at prestigious international art institutions, including solo exhibitions at MOMA, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Ikon Gallery and group shows at PS1, The Brooklyn Museum, The Pompidou Centre. Work currently on show in elles@pompidou. Sigalit Landau gained acclaim for her provocative video Barbed Hula, 2000, in which the artist hula’ed naked with barbed wire, using her body in a ritualistic manner to explore transformations, history, memory, politics, borders, which will be shown in the Body in Women’s Art Now.
Regina José Galindo: achieved wide recognition for her videoed performance ¿Quién puede borrar las huellas? (Who can erase the traces?), 2003, which documents the artist’s walk from Guatemala City’s constitutional Court to the National Palace imprinted with bloody footprints. Regina José Galindo received the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale in 2005; her physical and often violent works using her own body have been shown at PS1, Le Plateau in Paris, in ‘Global Feminisms’ at the Brooklyn Museum and recently in a solo exhibition ‘The Body of Others’ at Modern Art Oxford, 2009.
Jessica Lagunas: plays along with women’s beauty rituals in her video works, performing them in exaggerated ways to reflect the pressures imposed by today’s society, with repetitive gestures the artists applies lipstick continuously for one hour to make the beautiful bizarre. With aesthetics akin to contemporary advertising Lagunas questions the images of femininity we are sold in contemporary society. Jessica Lagunas works have been shown at El Museo, New York, Bronx Museum, Jersey City Museum and is included in the anthology ‘Imagining Ourselves, Global Voices from a New Generation of Women’.
Lydia Maria Julien: is an emerging photography artist, graduate of Central St Martins MA Fine Art 2007. Julien’s work has been shown at Courtauld Institute of Art, included in East Wing 08. The works selected for the exhibition explore the objectification of the body and looks at the relationship between the body and audience, art and its institutions.
Part II: Trangressive Bodies
2nd March – 2nd April 2010 ROLLO Contemporary Art,
10th April – 9th May 2010 New Hall Art Collection
This show includes artists whose works represent and reinterpret the image of the female body. Engaging with how feminine identity and ideals are constructed and can be disrupted through the image of the female body.
Part III: The Body Re-made
Sept -Oct 2010 ROLLO Contemporary Art, London
6th November – 4th December 2010 New Hall Art Collection
A hybrid of the first two show –reinterpreted and constructed bodies. The artists grouped here present deformed, disrupted, manipulated and hybrid bodies. Exploring the shifting position and perception of the body in relationship to developing technologies, artists create bodily constructions. Works may suggest the mortality of the body, the development of the body, the relationship of the body to nature and technology.
The Venues:
The New Hall Art Collection is a permanent collection of contemporary art by women artists, displayed throughout the Murray Edwards College. The Collection has come about as the result of generous gifts and loans from artists and donors. There are now more than 350 contemporary artworks by women artists including Paula Rego, Mary Kelly and Cornelia Parker. By virtue of its size and specialisation, the New Hall Art Collection has become the most significant of its kind in Europe. The Temporary Exhibition Space is found on the lower corridor offers women artists the opportunity to showcase their work for periods of up to one month. The space is open 7 days a week, from 10 am – 6pm. A list of up and coming exhibitions can be found on website, www.art.newhall.cam.ac.uk
Contact: Amanda Rigler, Curator, art@newhall.cam.ac.uk, 01223 769404, New Hall Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge, CB3 0DF,
ROLLO Contemporary Art Gallery launched in 2005 with The Writer, the installation of a 30m high table and chair on Hampstead Heath, and fast established itself as a serious force in the art world. Based originally in Islington, ROLLO moved to its current space in London W1, in January 2008. ROLLO holds seven in house exhibitions as well as curating exhibitions in outside venues; such as at the Royal Academy of Arts, the Arts Club Dover Street, Clifford Chance Canary Wharf and Selfridges Department Store. The gallery aims to bring art to innovative spaces to reach a wider audience and make art more accessible. ROLLO Gallery Directors are Simon Gillespie and Philippa Found.
Gallery hours are: Monday – Friday 10am – 9pm and weekends by appointment. Full exhibition programme and artists can be seen at See www.rolloart.com Contact: Philippa Found, Gallery Director, +44 (0)207 580 0020 info@rolloart.com
Exhibition Curator:
Philippa Found’s area of interest is women’s art and the body in art. A First Class Graduate of Warwick University in History of Art, Found’s special subject was the Re-presentation of the Body In Art from 1970 – 2000. Her dissertation was written on the Disruption of Eroticism in Francesca Woodman’s photography, which won the University of Warwick dissertation prize 2006. Now, Director of ROLLO Contemporary Art, Philippa curates ROLLO’s exhibitions in and outside the gallery space. Past curatorial projects include ‘Frank’s Colour: Frank Bowling’s paintings 1980 – 2000’ at the Royal Academy of Arts London, ‘Frank Bowling Poured Paintings: 1974-79’ the Arts Club, London, which gained acclaim from critics such as Mel Gooding. Philippa is keen to bring an academic context into the commercial space, programming exhibitions which examine key themes in current art practice, such as ‘The Influence of Photography in Painting’ ‘Old Master’s Reinterpreted’ and ‘The Body in Women’s Art Now’.
Image: Sigalit Landau, Barbed Hula, 2000, video, courtesy of the artist and ROLLO Contemporary Art
Three travelling exhibitions curated by Philippa Found. An accompanying exhibition catalogue with essays by Philippa Found and Dr Harriet Riches is available for sale through ROLLO Contemporary Art
Exhibition Part 1: Embodied
Artists: Sigalit Landau (British Israeli) Regina Jose Galindo (Guatemalan) Jessica Lagunas (Guatemalan)
Lydia Maria Julien (British)
Exhibition Venues: ROLLO Contemporary Art, London and New Hall Art Collection, Cambridge
Date: 15th October – 20th January (ROLLO), 30th January – 28th February 2010 (New Hall Art Collection)
Image: Sigalit Landau, Barbed Hula, 2000, video, courtesy of the artist and ROLLO Contemporary Art
Throughout the history of art women and the body have had an entwined and shifting relationship; from the female nude being the most depicted object of the male artist’s creation, to women artists using their own bodies in art to reclaim possession of its imaging, and the birth of ‘feminist art’ in the 1960s. Today in a supposedly post-feminist generation, what issues are women artists expressing through the body? Philippa Found of ROLLO Contemporary Art presents The Body In Women’s Art Now- Embodied; a three part series of touring art exhibitions examining women’s art of the last decade in which the body is central, suggesting key characteristics and issues surrounding the body in women’s art today.
There has been much analysis of the body in women’s art created in the 1960s and 1970s, or else reviewing the ‘second generation’ women artists of the 1980s and 1990s, The Body In Woman’s Art Now- Embodied, looks exclusively at work created since the year 2000, aiming to plot a new generation of women body practice from around the world; up-dating and extending the academic study.
Presenting the works of internationally renowned women artists alongside up and coming artists, in a range of media; photography, video, performance, painting, sculpture, the exhibitions will suggest some key themes in the use of the body in women’s art today; suggesting what is new and specific to the 21st century.
Exhibition Part One, Embodied, includes iconic works such as Sigalit Landau’s video ‘Barbed Hula’ 2000, and Regina José Galindo’s ‘Who Can Erase The Traces’, which won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale in 2005. Part 2 will follow in April 2010 will part 3 in September 2010.
A three part book, The Body In Women’s Art Now, including original essays by art historians will be published by ROLLO Contemporary Art to accompany the exhibition series and contribute to the academic study.
The exhibitions will tour; premiering at ROLLO Contemporary Art and travel to New Hall Art Collection Cambridge, the public exhibition space and home to the largest collection of women’s art in the UK, second only in the world to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington.
Philippa Found is passionate that in a male dominated art-world it is important to give a space to important women practitioners, to cement their position in the contemporary art world’s consciousness. A recent article in the Guardian noted that women artists represent only 12% of the entire Tate Modern collection. Moreover, the last all women artist group exhibition to be held in a major UK public space was in 1993 (Bad Girls at the ICA)
The topic is growing in momentum; the current exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Paris - elles@pompidou – is the largest all female art exhibition in the world. Two recent major public exhibitions in the U.S. were devoted exclusively to reviewing women art practice; WACK at M.O.C.A and Global Feminisms at Brookyn Museum. The Body In Women’s Art Now aims to contribute to this current dialogue; giving women’s art greater visibility in the UK and updating the academic study of the body in art from the perspective of women artists from 2000 - 2009.
For further details or images please contact; Yasmin Amaratunga, +44(0)207 580 0020 yasmin@rolloart.com or Philippa Found on philippa@rolloart.com
The Exhibition Schedule and Details
Part I: Embodied: Sigalit Landau, Regina Jose Galindo, Jessica Lagunas, Lydia Maria Julien
15th October – 30th January ROLLO Contemporary Art, London
30th January – 28th February 2010 travelling to New Hall Art Collection
Catalogue essays by Harriet Riches and Philippa Found
The exhibition examines the re-emergence of the physical body as the site of art making in the last decade –examining the use of violence and ritualistic practice, challenges of endurance, and the relationship between artist and viewer’s body. Examining the diverse social and political issues the body has been used to communicate.
Sigalit Landau: internationally acclaimed Sigalit Landau represented Israel in the 1997 Venice Biennale. She has shown at prestigious international art institutions, including solo exhibitions at MOMA, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Ikon Gallery and group shows at PS1, The Brooklyn Museum, The Pompidou Centre. Work currently on show in elles@pompidou. Sigalit Landau gained acclaim for her provocative video Barbed Hula, 2000, in which the artist hula’ed naked with barbed wire, using her body in a ritualistic manner to explore transformations, history, memory, politics, borders, which will be shown in the Body in Women’s Art Now.
Regina José Galindo: achieved wide recognition for her videoed performance ¿Quién puede borrar las huellas? (Who can erase the traces?), 2003, which documents the artist’s walk from Guatemala City’s constitutional Court to the National Palace imprinted with bloody footprints. Regina José Galindo received the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale in 2005; her physical and often violent works using her own body have been shown at PS1, Le Plateau in Paris, in ‘Global Feminisms’ at the Brooklyn Museum and recently in a solo exhibition ‘The Body of Others’ at Modern Art Oxford, 2009.
Jessica Lagunas: plays along with women’s beauty rituals in her video works, performing them in exaggerated ways to reflect the pressures imposed by today’s society, with repetitive gestures the artists applies lipstick continuously for one hour to make the beautiful bizarre. With aesthetics akin to contemporary advertising Lagunas questions the images of femininity we are sold in contemporary society. Jessica Lagunas works have been shown at El Museo, New York, Bronx Museum, Jersey City Museum and is included in the anthology ‘Imagining Ourselves, Global Voices from a New Generation of Women’.
Lydia Maria Julien: is an emerging photography artist, graduate of Central St Martins MA Fine Art 2007. Julien’s work has been shown at Courtauld Institute of Art, included in East Wing 08. The works selected for the exhibition explore the objectification of the body and looks at the relationship between the body and audience, art and its institutions.
Part II: Trangressive Bodies
2nd March – 2nd April 2010 ROLLO Contemporary Art,
10th April – 9th May 2010 New Hall Art Collection
This show includes artists whose works represent and reinterpret the image of the female body. Engaging with how feminine identity and ideals are constructed and can be disrupted through the image of the female body.
Part III: The Body Re-made
Sept -Oct 2010 ROLLO Contemporary Art, London
6th November – 4th December 2010 New Hall Art Collection
A hybrid of the first two show –reinterpreted and constructed bodies. The artists grouped here present deformed, disrupted, manipulated and hybrid bodies. Exploring the shifting position and perception of the body in relationship to developing technologies, artists create bodily constructions. Works may suggest the mortality of the body, the development of the body, the relationship of the body to nature and technology.
The Venues:
The New Hall Art Collection is a permanent collection of contemporary art by women artists, displayed throughout the Murray Edwards College. The Collection has come about as the result of generous gifts and loans from artists and donors. There are now more than 350 contemporary artworks by women artists including Paula Rego, Mary Kelly and Cornelia Parker. By virtue of its size and specialisation, the New Hall Art Collection has become the most significant of its kind in Europe. The Temporary Exhibition Space is found on the lower corridor offers women artists the opportunity to showcase their work for periods of up to one month. The space is open 7 days a week, from 10 am – 6pm. A list of up and coming exhibitions can be found on website, www.art.newhall.cam.ac.uk
Contact: Amanda Rigler, Curator, art@newhall.cam.ac.uk, 01223 769404, New Hall Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge, CB3 0DF,
ROLLO Contemporary Art Gallery launched in 2005 with The Writer, the installation of a 30m high table and chair on Hampstead Heath, and fast established itself as a serious force in the art world. Based originally in Islington, ROLLO moved to its current space in London W1, in January 2008. ROLLO holds seven in house exhibitions as well as curating exhibitions in outside venues; such as at the Royal Academy of Arts, the Arts Club Dover Street, Clifford Chance Canary Wharf and Selfridges Department Store. The gallery aims to bring art to innovative spaces to reach a wider audience and make art more accessible. ROLLO Gallery Directors are Simon Gillespie and Philippa Found.
Gallery hours are: Monday – Friday 10am – 9pm and weekends by appointment. Full exhibition programme and artists can be seen at See www.rolloart.com Contact: Philippa Found, Gallery Director, +44 (0)207 580 0020 info@rolloart.com
Exhibition Curator:
Philippa Found’s area of interest is women’s art and the body in art. A First Class Graduate of Warwick University in History of Art, Found’s special subject was the Re-presentation of the Body In Art from 1970 – 2000. Her dissertation was written on the Disruption of Eroticism in Francesca Woodman’s photography, which won the University of Warwick dissertation prize 2006. Now, Director of ROLLO Contemporary Art, Philippa curates ROLLO’s exhibitions in and outside the gallery space. Past curatorial projects include ‘Frank’s Colour: Frank Bowling’s paintings 1980 – 2000’ at the Royal Academy of Arts London, ‘Frank Bowling Poured Paintings: 1974-79’ the Arts Club, London, which gained acclaim from critics such as Mel Gooding. Philippa is keen to bring an academic context into the commercial space, programming exhibitions which examine key themes in current art practice, such as ‘The Influence of Photography in Painting’ ‘Old Master’s Reinterpreted’ and ‘The Body in Women’s Art Now’.
Image: Sigalit Landau, Barbed Hula, 2000, video, courtesy of the artist and ROLLO Contemporary Art