Description
This exhibition, showcasing the work of 17 artists, runs concurrent with the social and emotional movement of the same name: Soft Girl Era. Behind the movement is the desire to break culturally embedded images and historical expectations assigned to black women.
Bred by slavery, compounded by hundreds of years of persecution, and perpetuated by historically-grounded expectations, black women have assumed a protective stance and demeanor to disguise vulnerability and shield themselves and those for whom they provide care. In contemporary art and advertising, depictions of black women offer a narrow perspective on the black experience. Imagery, whether it be realistic or abstract, has often focused on traumatic aspects of life—not on black joy—and often revealed through violent content, figures donned with metaphorical armor, stylistically hard-edge lines, and heavily saturated colors.
Soft Girl Era breaks down assumptions that black women are bound to adhere to this style of representation, this way of life, that the only means of strength are a rigid exterior. The Soft Girl Era movement challenges notions of race and beauty, and gender and power to suggest a softness derived through an aesthetic that projects overt femininity: pastel colors, a playfulness and above all, self-driven empowerment acquired through self-awareness, a confidence to set boundaries, acceptance of a slow and purposeful life, and the adoption of a work life balance.
Supporting the ideals aligned with the movement, the curators selected a diversity of work that collectively demonstrates a calling for personal change, a disruption in practice or navigation through new expectations, a softening of edges, and an expression of pride and dignity.
Participating Artists: Olga Alexander, Sharon Bloomfield Hicks, Daniel Dallman, Suzan Globus, Jessica Marie Hopkins, DeVaughn Jerrell, Erica Jones, Tatana Kellner, Judy Kirpich, Gail Morrison-Hall, Ituno Ogundipe, Marybeth Rothman, Juan Santos, Marilyn Stubblebine, Judi Tavill, Brian Truesdale
Curated by Leslie Shaffer and Nataki Oliver
DuPont II Gallery