Group show of 5 Women Artists: Rhianna Paul, Tasha Paulus, Aimie Botelho, Rachel Thomas, and Kirsten LeBlanc
With heart and a spirit of acceptance these five artists, all of which recently graduated from York University’s BFA program, presented artwork that both celebrates and promotes the multiplicity of the female body. The artworks themselves were diverse in their use of media including plaster, wood and brass sculpture, readymades, using breasts as a “brush”, etc. The artworks were not cohesive, nor did they adhere to addressing the same themes related to the female body. However, this was not a shortcoming. It was quite the contrary. By presenting these young artists work together they, firstly, challenge what we, the masses, accept as beautiful, and sexy (ex: Tasha Paulus); challenging the constructs of power and social constructions of the female such as the housewife, or the woman as the weaker vessel (ex: Rhianna Paul); promoting the female body as dominant over the forces that seek to dominant her (trauma, memory, bodily threats) (ex: Rachel Thomas and Aimie Bothello); and finally, challenging how we use the female body, not for sex, but rather to use the female body, literally, as an instrument of creativity (ex:Kristen LeBlanc). Overall, I do not agree that “New Erotica” is the best title for this exhibit. Although the artworks can all, individually, be read through the lens of sexuality, their work also addresses a handful of themes that need to be acknowledged and appreciated. Collectively, these ladies put forth a message that uplifts and empowers the modern-day woman, even in moments of weakness and vulnerability.
Artist Tasha Paulus with model featured in her series of photographs, Feminan Caro Crudum (Raw Female Flesh), 2013, photographic print
Tasha Paulus’s Fetish?!, 2013, photographic collage and Rachel Thomas They Rarely Ask About the Scar, 2013, oil painting
Artist Rhianna Paul and Slab, 2013, sculpture
Rhianna Paul’s Sewing Machine, 2013, sculpture
Artist Rachel Thomas and Delicates, 2013, sculpture
Owner and Founder of Urban Gallery, Calvin Hambrook with Rachel Thomas’s Delicates, 2013, sculpture
From Left to Right: Aimie Botelho, Tongs and Hammer, 2013, sculpture. Aimie Botelho, Bear Trap, 2013, sculpture, and Kirsten LeBlanc, Red Lady, 2013, sculpture
Artist Kirsten LeBlanc with Red Lady, 2013, acrylic painting, and Fusion, 2013, acrylic painting
Text and photo by Leanne Simaan
*Note: The show is open: August 9 – 19, 2013 at Urban Gallery, 400 Queen St. E.