Famed artist known for work exploring stereotypes of race, gender, class
Internationally renowned African-American artist Carrie Mae Weems will have an exhibition of her works at the University of Rochester's Hartnett Gallery from Thursday, Feb. 8, through Friday, March 9.
Titled "All about Eve," the exhibition will feature a cross section of her older and more recent work focusing on relationships and issues relating to women. The show includes her most recent video project, "Italian Dreams," which explores longing and loss.
An artist's talk with Weems and writer/critic Cheryl Kaplan will be held at 4 p.m. Monday, Feb. 12, in the Gowen Room in Wilson Commons on the River Campus and will be followed by a reception from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Hartnett Gallery. The exhibition and events are free and open to the public.
Over the past 25 years, Weems has used photographs, text, fabric, audio, digital images, and video to explore family relationships, gender roles, racism, sexism, class, and political systems. Her work makes probing observations on political, social, and economic realities, challenging viewers to question their perceptions of identity, race, and gender. In her recent exhibition "The Louisiana Project," for example, commissioned to commemorate the bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase, Weems juxtaposed photography, video, and archival materials that addressed the social and racial hierarchies of white men, their wives, and their Creole mistresses.
Weems has presented in solo and group exhibitions worldwide, including New York's Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Her exhibition "Ritual & Revolution," an examination of humanitarian crises, was shown in Senegal and Germany. She has also shown her work in South Africa, Canada, France, Portugal, and the Netherlands.
Weems received the Distinguished Photographers Award from Women in Photography in 2005. Her other awards include the Alpert Award for Visual Arts and a Visual Arts Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She was named Photographer of the Year by the Friends of Photography in 1994.
Syracuse-based Weems has been an artist-in-residence at numerous institutions, including Wellesley College, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, and Syracuse University.
The Hartnett Gallery is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and noon to 6 p.m. on weekends. For more information, contact the Hartnett Gallery at (585) 275-4188 during gallery hours or check online at http://www.rochester.edu/College/humanities/projects/?visualizing&exhibitions#Weems.
"All about Eve" is funded by The Humanities Project, a year-long initiative at the University of Rochester emphasizing the influence and contributions of the humanities to academic and civic life.