Current Exhibition
Coveted.
February 13 - April 4, 2021
Laura Mulvey, Scholar, and Filmmaker introduced the term "the male gaze" in her 1975 essay. The male gaze represents the perspective of a heterosexual male viewer, along with the perspective of the heterosexual male character and the heterosexual male creator of the film. The male gaze also primarily depicts women as sexual objects for the sole pleasure of the male viewer.
While representations of the male gaze can be found in abundance when exploring themes of love, relationships, and desires, Coveted features works that offer a range of perspectives that are not easily accessible in mainstream culture. Featured works by Stefani Byrd (Fayetteville, AR), Dani Clauson (Portland, OR), Leiyana Gonzales (Cleveland, OH), Sydney Kleinrock (Long Island, NY), Megan Lubey (Cleveland, OH), Olga Nazarenko (Cleveland, OH), and Rebecca Poarch (Long Island, NY).
While representations of the male gaze can be found in abundance when exploring themes of love, relationships, and desires, Coveted features works that offer a range of perspectives that are not easily accessible in mainstream culture. Featured works by Stefani Byrd (Fayetteville, AR), Dani Clauson (Portland, OR), Leiyana Gonzales (Cleveland, OH), Sydney Kleinrock (Long Island, NY), Megan Lubey (Cleveland, OH), Olga Nazarenko (Cleveland, OH), and Rebecca Poarch (Long Island, NY).
Artist Bios & Statements
Stefani Byrd
Stefani Byrd’s art practice includes video, new media, and interactive technologies. Byrd’s early work addressed social justice issues in the form of interactive temporary public art installations that created role reversal, or "empathy training,” experiences for the audience. Her current work focuses on creating psychologically charged immersive media environments addressing topics such as digital feminism, gun
violence, and how technology impacts empathy in digitally mediated spaces.
Her work has been exhibited at places such as the CICA Museum (South Korea), the Museum of Contemporary Art of San Diego (San Diego), the Athens Institute for Contemporary Art, Atlanta Film Festival, and the Hunter Museum of American Art. She has received grants and support from groups such as: Creative Capital of New York, Flux Projects, Atlanta Celebrates Photography, and Idea Capital. Byrd's work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia and the Columbus Museum of American Art.
She received her BFA degree in Photography from Georgia State University. She holds a Masters Degree in Visual Art from the University of California San Diego. Byrd is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas.
Artist Statement
A visual tone poem inspired by the beautiful, but potentially tragic, mating ritual of the American Bald Eagle. The two soar up to high altitudes, lock talons, and spiral towards the earth. If they release in time and complete the courtship ritual, they become a bonded pair for life. If they don’t release from one another in time, both will crash into the ground and die. This act creates a tension between succeeding with their mate and maintaining their own survival. The score for the video comes from the infamous song “True Love Waits” by the band Radiohead. The song was written 21 years before it was recorded and released on a studio album. It began as a hopeful and proud love song at the beginning of the relationship between lead singer Thom Yorke and artist/scholar Rachel Owen. The two would later marry and have two children. The song was finally recorded and released in 2016 as a resigned and melancholy ballad after their divorce and her subsequent death from cancer. The song refers to the same relationship, but in its two stages, chronicling its aging and eventual deterioration. This piece is inspired by the notion of tragedy, abandonment, loss, and the gap between the ideals and actualities of romantic love.
violence, and how technology impacts empathy in digitally mediated spaces.
Her work has been exhibited at places such as the CICA Museum (South Korea), the Museum of Contemporary Art of San Diego (San Diego), the Athens Institute for Contemporary Art, Atlanta Film Festival, and the Hunter Museum of American Art. She has received grants and support from groups such as: Creative Capital of New York, Flux Projects, Atlanta Celebrates Photography, and Idea Capital. Byrd's work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia and the Columbus Museum of American Art.
She received her BFA degree in Photography from Georgia State University. She holds a Masters Degree in Visual Art from the University of California San Diego. Byrd is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas.
Artist Statement
A visual tone poem inspired by the beautiful, but potentially tragic, mating ritual of the American Bald Eagle. The two soar up to high altitudes, lock talons, and spiral towards the earth. If they release in time and complete the courtship ritual, they become a bonded pair for life. If they don’t release from one another in time, both will crash into the ground and die. This act creates a tension between succeeding with their mate and maintaining their own survival. The score for the video comes from the infamous song “True Love Waits” by the band Radiohead. The song was written 21 years before it was recorded and released on a studio album. It began as a hopeful and proud love song at the beginning of the relationship between lead singer Thom Yorke and artist/scholar Rachel Owen. The two would later marry and have two children. The song was finally recorded and released in 2016 as a resigned and melancholy ballad after their divorce and her subsequent death from cancer. The song refers to the same relationship, but in its two stages, chronicling its aging and eventual deterioration. This piece is inspired by the notion of tragedy, abandonment, loss, and the gap between the ideals and actualities of romantic love.
Dani Clauson
Dani Clauson is a queer trans/non-binary ceramics artist, who has been utilizing art as a mode of ‘speaking’ since they were a child. Dani utilizes their past experiences of domestic memories, trauma, and relationships to influence their work. They found clay as a freshman attending the University Of Montana, and have been touched by the materials empathy, reciprocation, and bodily metaphor ever since. Clay has been crucial to healing and expressing their struggle with bodily connection and sense of safety. From the University of Washington they have received a BA with honors in 3D4M, alongside a minor in Art History. They utilize their art history education to strengthen their art objects to speak upon the history of violence against the Feminine and its effects upon queer identity and gender.
Artist Statement
“If I were to write to you To tell you something Or create some visual you can place hands upon Some textural tactile technique How naked should I become? [do you fetishize my flesh?] These domestic recesses of my mind, Where the boundaries of body, emptiness of self Reveal themselves behind the curtain, [I seem obsessed with the perforated line that seems to divide But suggests to cut open. To be so vulnerable yet suggestive of barriers.] Do you remember what they told you, about becoming a ‘woman’? Can’t you see, I’m not one? (don’t)(touch me) I’ll keep these restless hands digging through clay To find an empty state To find acceptance / rejection Of objectification / subjectification To find my voice To find my body.” With its own sense of body, touch and memory, as well as its transformative nature from ephemeral to permanent, ceramics holds a metaphor of trauma and its lasting effects. The ceramic forms I create are reflective of the Abject Body-the traumatized body-the Queer body. They expose distortion and fragmentation that compel the viewer to meet both discomfort and familiarity. Being trans/nonbinary, I have spent my life distant from my own body. ‘Love’ within a Queer body is an abject experience, a reckoning with the body one exists in and the desires that are under the surface. Finding embodiment in physicality is a gentle process-a painful endeavor-leaving voids and a hollowing from residual trauma to try and find that sense of safety and comfort. Through use of washes and glaze, the textured surface reveals marks of erosion, scaring, discoloration, and tearing. The bodily forms are placed upon built settings that are rendered domestically familiar to reveal the origins of these physical disruptions. These ceramic renderings/ramblings understand the physical feeling of Body from the perspective of the Emotive-Self. Through this voice, validation, and vulnerability, my work aims to acknowledge trauma and bring forth a grieving space that is sensitive, healing, and Queer.
Artist Statement
“If I were to write to you To tell you something Or create some visual you can place hands upon Some textural tactile technique How naked should I become? [do you fetishize my flesh?] These domestic recesses of my mind, Where the boundaries of body, emptiness of self Reveal themselves behind the curtain, [I seem obsessed with the perforated line that seems to divide But suggests to cut open. To be so vulnerable yet suggestive of barriers.] Do you remember what they told you, about becoming a ‘woman’? Can’t you see, I’m not one? (don’t)(touch me) I’ll keep these restless hands digging through clay To find an empty state To find acceptance / rejection Of objectification / subjectification To find my voice To find my body.” With its own sense of body, touch and memory, as well as its transformative nature from ephemeral to permanent, ceramics holds a metaphor of trauma and its lasting effects. The ceramic forms I create are reflective of the Abject Body-the traumatized body-the Queer body. They expose distortion and fragmentation that compel the viewer to meet both discomfort and familiarity. Being trans/nonbinary, I have spent my life distant from my own body. ‘Love’ within a Queer body is an abject experience, a reckoning with the body one exists in and the desires that are under the surface. Finding embodiment in physicality is a gentle process-a painful endeavor-leaving voids and a hollowing from residual trauma to try and find that sense of safety and comfort. Through use of washes and glaze, the textured surface reveals marks of erosion, scaring, discoloration, and tearing. The bodily forms are placed upon built settings that are rendered domestically familiar to reveal the origins of these physical disruptions. These ceramic renderings/ramblings understand the physical feeling of Body from the perspective of the Emotive-Self. Through this voice, validation, and vulnerability, my work aims to acknowledge trauma and bring forth a grieving space that is sensitive, healing, and Queer.
Leiyana Gonzales
Leiyana Gonzales is an interdisciplinary digital artist based in Cleveland, Ohio. Her work is rooted in the details and emphasizes saturated, vibrant colors that dance across your mind. Leiyana focuses on creating pieces that effortlessly portray familiarity while embodying otherworldly elements. She has been creating on digital platforms since 2018, after spending her early life sketching and painting with graphite and acrylic mediums. Her work intends to inspire her audience to see magic in the mundane and transport them into another world.
Artist Statement
I intend for my art to feel like a dream you don’t want to wake up from. Shapes, colors and motifs dance across your mind just waiting to be decoded. My creativity is mine, but it exists on its own. It is up for your interpretation. I want my art to stay with my audience and speak to their soul. About the submitted collection: Being desirable and being loved are not synonymous. As young women we unknowingly conflate the two, breaking our own hearts in the process. Black women are often viewed only as objects to be desired. Our bodies are so much more than just desirable. Our bodies are portals into our minds and souls, they hold the very essence that is us. My collection invites you to look at a black body beyond desire, beyond the surface, and into the essence that is me. Hopefully inspiring others to do the same.
Artist Statement
I intend for my art to feel like a dream you don’t want to wake up from. Shapes, colors and motifs dance across your mind just waiting to be decoded. My creativity is mine, but it exists on its own. It is up for your interpretation. I want my art to stay with my audience and speak to their soul. About the submitted collection: Being desirable and being loved are not synonymous. As young women we unknowingly conflate the two, breaking our own hearts in the process. Black women are often viewed only as objects to be desired. Our bodies are so much more than just desirable. Our bodies are portals into our minds and souls, they hold the very essence that is us. My collection invites you to look at a black body beyond desire, beyond the surface, and into the essence that is me. Hopefully inspiring others to do the same.
Sydney Kleinrock
Sydney Kleinrock is a painter and textile artist born in Long Island, New York. She received her Associates Degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology, and graduated in 2018 with a BFA from Hampshire College, studying visual arts and sustainability. In her last year at school, she exhibited a gallery show of her thesis artwork which examined the role of clothing in everyday life as well as its larger, cross-cultural impact on the global environment. Recently, she has done a residency at the Vermont Studio Center, and shown work at the Untitled Space in tribeca. She currently works out of her studio in Greenfield, MA.
Artist Statement
My practice incorporates painting and drawing with textile art processes to explore themes of queerness, identity and internal landscapes in the context of greater cultural surroundings. I explore the variation of texture and dimension that is added when textile elements are combined with painting. The imagery in my work is drawn from a combination of memory, imagination, and moments captured from life. Often reflective objects are transformed into a vessel for refracting the fleeting moment that is presented before the surface. Recognizable figures are distorted through a reflective surface or the ever-shifting perspective of memory and emotion. Through the use of oversaturated colors and loosely-rendered space, everyday scenes and memories become surreal and dream-like; sometimes breaking objects and subjects away from a fixed sense of space entirely. Distanced perspectives are captured through the frame of up close objects, creating a layered effect that hints at the transitory nature of reality and the ever-fluctuating presence of internal and outer life.
Artist Statement
My practice incorporates painting and drawing with textile art processes to explore themes of queerness, identity and internal landscapes in the context of greater cultural surroundings. I explore the variation of texture and dimension that is added when textile elements are combined with painting. The imagery in my work is drawn from a combination of memory, imagination, and moments captured from life. Often reflective objects are transformed into a vessel for refracting the fleeting moment that is presented before the surface. Recognizable figures are distorted through a reflective surface or the ever-shifting perspective of memory and emotion. Through the use of oversaturated colors and loosely-rendered space, everyday scenes and memories become surreal and dream-like; sometimes breaking objects and subjects away from a fixed sense of space entirely. Distanced perspectives are captured through the frame of up close objects, creating a layered effect that hints at the transitory nature of reality and the ever-fluctuating presence of internal and outer life.
Megan Lubey
Originally from Buffalo, NY, Megan Lubey is a young artist currently studying painting and creative writing at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Her work often explores unconventional, ‘crafty’ media and how it interacts with more traditional aspects of painting. Lubey’s paintings range from observational to non-objective, repeatedly incorporating unexpected saturation of color and gestural expression. Her work considers themes such as comfort, domesticity, girlhood, shame, and sexuality. These pieces tend to reflect on personal experiences and their ability to resonate within others when stripped down to their core emotions or when evoking a visceral feeling.
Artist Statement
This series of three explores the artist's relationship with the social construct of virginity. In adolescence we are generally taught that virginity is lost when a penis enters a vagina and a hymen breaks. This definition feels incredibly far removed from the expansiveness that is the practice of sexuality and is dangerously hetero-normative. This interpretation directly caters to cis straight males and perpetuates the idea that while men are gaining something from engaging in sex, women are losing something. The loss of a boy’s virginity is something that is often congratulated or is considered a right of passage. This is almost never the case with a woman or non-binary individual. There is a pressure specifically put on young girls to stay abstinent that is often perpetuated by family, teachers, and religious organizations. At the same time, there is an equally present pressure from their male counterparts and media to become sexual and that pushes sexuality upon girls before they get the chance to decide to partake in it themselves. These notions result in feelings of shame and regret in young women and perpetuate rape culture.
This series depicts the artist’s personal disconnect between the feelings involved with a so-called “first time” and its standard definition as well as the shame and pain that intertwines with discovering sexuality and deviating from the standard. “The First Time” represents the feeling of becoming sexually active despite not having the desire to. There is a very specific pain that is endured when the body is engaging in something that mind is against. This piece is an abstract representation of physical pain, confusion in disdain, coercion, and an attempt to adhere to expectations and social norms. The first time is forced heterosexuality, it is unwelcome. “The Second Time” is an abstract depiction of a hymenectomy. This is a medical procedure that occurs when an individual’s hymen has developed in a way in which it is unable to break naturally and results in extreme pain and discomfort when there is an attempt to penetrate. In regards to the biological definition that includes the breaking of the hymen as the loss of virginity, this is an extremely unconventional way to do so. The second time is blacked out under amnesia, it is sterile and scheduled. “The Third Time” is virginity in the way that the artist would prefer to define it. This depicts an experience that is both wanted and welcome, yet conflicted. In a hetero-normative and religious environment there is a sense of shame in being a queer woman. In a patriarchal society there is a feeling of inadequacy and anxiety in being a queer women and living in a way that does not involve nor benefit the cis male. A concept of virginity without a hypothetical man is both seldom heard and unpopular yet extremely necessary and valid. The third time does not involve standards or medicine, it is queer, messy, and spontaneous.
Artist Statement
This series of three explores the artist's relationship with the social construct of virginity. In adolescence we are generally taught that virginity is lost when a penis enters a vagina and a hymen breaks. This definition feels incredibly far removed from the expansiveness that is the practice of sexuality and is dangerously hetero-normative. This interpretation directly caters to cis straight males and perpetuates the idea that while men are gaining something from engaging in sex, women are losing something. The loss of a boy’s virginity is something that is often congratulated or is considered a right of passage. This is almost never the case with a woman or non-binary individual. There is a pressure specifically put on young girls to stay abstinent that is often perpetuated by family, teachers, and religious organizations. At the same time, there is an equally present pressure from their male counterparts and media to become sexual and that pushes sexuality upon girls before they get the chance to decide to partake in it themselves. These notions result in feelings of shame and regret in young women and perpetuate rape culture.
This series depicts the artist’s personal disconnect between the feelings involved with a so-called “first time” and its standard definition as well as the shame and pain that intertwines with discovering sexuality and deviating from the standard. “The First Time” represents the feeling of becoming sexually active despite not having the desire to. There is a very specific pain that is endured when the body is engaging in something that mind is against. This piece is an abstract representation of physical pain, confusion in disdain, coercion, and an attempt to adhere to expectations and social norms. The first time is forced heterosexuality, it is unwelcome. “The Second Time” is an abstract depiction of a hymenectomy. This is a medical procedure that occurs when an individual’s hymen has developed in a way in which it is unable to break naturally and results in extreme pain and discomfort when there is an attempt to penetrate. In regards to the biological definition that includes the breaking of the hymen as the loss of virginity, this is an extremely unconventional way to do so. The second time is blacked out under amnesia, it is sterile and scheduled. “The Third Time” is virginity in the way that the artist would prefer to define it. This depicts an experience that is both wanted and welcome, yet conflicted. In a hetero-normative and religious environment there is a sense of shame in being a queer woman. In a patriarchal society there is a feeling of inadequacy and anxiety in being a queer women and living in a way that does not involve nor benefit the cis male. A concept of virginity without a hypothetical man is both seldom heard and unpopular yet extremely necessary and valid. The third time does not involve standards or medicine, it is queer, messy, and spontaneous.
Olga Nazarenko
Olga Nazarenko is a Russian-American interdisciplinary mixed media artist currently based in Cleveland. Nazarenko documents the transience of experience through a sensorial and culturally-guided lens. Nazarenko uses a variety of visual, auditory, and tactile artistic mediums to shape works that comment on the narratives that shape human identity, the relationship between humans and nature, and the rituals that connect humans to the divine.
Since 2019, Nazarenko has been experimenting with mediums that liberate and engage the senses. As a filmmaker, Nazarenko uses sensory ethnography and experimental documentary styles to shape new forms of visual communication and to explore human
sense-making. In addition to analog and digital film and audio as mediums, Nazarenko uses three-dimensional materials to create physical objects that tell a story or comment on cultural customs. By using cement sculpture and ceramics, Nazarenko shapes forms that allow audiences to relate to the world as a child does, with a free and exploratory mind. By connecting the intuitive world of the three-dimensional with the visual narratives of the two-dimensional, Nazarenko suggests new ways to view our realities and the narratives we build in our own lives.
Artist Statement
Olga Nazarenko (b. 1994) is an interdisciplinary mixed media artist documenting the transience of experience through a sensorial and culturally-guided lens. Nazarenko uses a variety of visual, auditory, and tactile artistic mediums to shape works that comment on the narratives that shape human identity, the relationship between humans and nature, and the rituals that connect humans to the divine. In the infamous 1972 article “Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture”, anthropologist Sherry Ortner explored the universality of female subordination by arguing that women are identified with and are a symbol of nature; while, men are symbolized by humanity’s culture. Cacophony (2020) is a short sensory ethnographical film exploring humanity’s complex relationship to nature, and the power dynamics that shape this relationship. By analyzing the age old war between anthropocentric human superiority and to-be-tamed nature, this film seeks to illuminate the tension that exists in mainstream heterosexual desire and sexuality using sensorial experience as its language.
Since 2019, Nazarenko has been experimenting with mediums that liberate and engage the senses. As a filmmaker, Nazarenko uses sensory ethnography and experimental documentary styles to shape new forms of visual communication and to explore human
sense-making. In addition to analog and digital film and audio as mediums, Nazarenko uses three-dimensional materials to create physical objects that tell a story or comment on cultural customs. By using cement sculpture and ceramics, Nazarenko shapes forms that allow audiences to relate to the world as a child does, with a free and exploratory mind. By connecting the intuitive world of the three-dimensional with the visual narratives of the two-dimensional, Nazarenko suggests new ways to view our realities and the narratives we build in our own lives.
Artist Statement
Olga Nazarenko (b. 1994) is an interdisciplinary mixed media artist documenting the transience of experience through a sensorial and culturally-guided lens. Nazarenko uses a variety of visual, auditory, and tactile artistic mediums to shape works that comment on the narratives that shape human identity, the relationship between humans and nature, and the rituals that connect humans to the divine. In the infamous 1972 article “Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture”, anthropologist Sherry Ortner explored the universality of female subordination by arguing that women are identified with and are a symbol of nature; while, men are symbolized by humanity’s culture. Cacophony (2020) is a short sensory ethnographical film exploring humanity’s complex relationship to nature, and the power dynamics that shape this relationship. By analyzing the age old war between anthropocentric human superiority and to-be-tamed nature, this film seeks to illuminate the tension that exists in mainstream heterosexual desire and sexuality using sensorial experience as its language.
Rebecca Poarch
Rebecca Poarch is a 22-year-old artist from Long Island, New York. She recently graduated from the Pennsylvania State University after pursing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art with her concentration in Painting & Drawing. Rebecca was awarded the 2019 Margaret Giffen Schoenfelder Memorial Scholarship by Penn State School of Visual Arts to recognize her as an exceptional forth-year painter. Rebecca has shown at Greenpoint Gallery in Brooklyn, New York, Radiator Gallery in Queens, New York, and with the Garment District Alliance in New York, New York. Rebecca has worked as a Curatorial Assistant at Isabella Garrucho Fine Art in Greenwich, Connecticut and as a Curatorial Assistant at the Art Alliance of Central Pennsylvania in State College, Pennsylvania.
Artist Statement
With vivid colors and dream-like scenes, my work aims to realize the blurred line between the body and its lived experiences, in conjunction with these developing ideas in the contemporary art world. My work aims to tell stories of girlhood, love, loss, sexuality, and other physical and emotional experiences, creating a personal mythology and diaristic narrative. Through painting a dreamland of hyper-femininity, I am creating a world of bright light from darkness, or a utopia from a place of vulnerability. After a surgery that caused me to think about my relationship to femininity and sensuality, my most recent works have used a process of taking photos of myself, cutting and manipulating these images in photoshop, and transferring these compositions to a painting. This bridged my thoughts on the cutting and healing process my body physically has undergone and its relation to my femininity and that which makes me feel beautiful. Through my painting process, I am able to accept and adapt to the bodily changes I have experienced, confront my constant need to make myself feel beautiful, and connect to a deeper personal sense of sensuality and femininity. Most recently, my work has contemplated how painting can act as performance in my life, particularly in my everyday ritualistic beauty routines. Sewing together my used makeup wipes as material to paint on has caused me to merge my self-care practices and my painting practices to find fulfillment in both performances simultaneously. I hope to address questions of growth and self-acceptance, coming from a place of vulnerability, to then create soft, ephemeral, and hyper-feminine works that speak to not only my personal experiences, but also political and social issues at a greater scale. I hope to find oneness, beauty, and strength in the elasticity and morphing of the physical and emotional self, particularly while living in the body of a girl who is becoming a woman.
Artist Statement
With vivid colors and dream-like scenes, my work aims to realize the blurred line between the body and its lived experiences, in conjunction with these developing ideas in the contemporary art world. My work aims to tell stories of girlhood, love, loss, sexuality, and other physical and emotional experiences, creating a personal mythology and diaristic narrative. Through painting a dreamland of hyper-femininity, I am creating a world of bright light from darkness, or a utopia from a place of vulnerability. After a surgery that caused me to think about my relationship to femininity and sensuality, my most recent works have used a process of taking photos of myself, cutting and manipulating these images in photoshop, and transferring these compositions to a painting. This bridged my thoughts on the cutting and healing process my body physically has undergone and its relation to my femininity and that which makes me feel beautiful. Through my painting process, I am able to accept and adapt to the bodily changes I have experienced, confront my constant need to make myself feel beautiful, and connect to a deeper personal sense of sensuality and femininity. Most recently, my work has contemplated how painting can act as performance in my life, particularly in my everyday ritualistic beauty routines. Sewing together my used makeup wipes as material to paint on has caused me to merge my self-care practices and my painting practices to find fulfillment in both performances simultaneously. I hope to address questions of growth and self-acceptance, coming from a place of vulnerability, to then create soft, ephemeral, and hyper-feminine works that speak to not only my personal experiences, but also political and social issues at a greater scale. I hope to find oneness, beauty, and strength in the elasticity and morphing of the physical and emotional self, particularly while living in the body of a girl who is becoming a woman.