Lesbian Art Herstory: Lesbians Seeing Lesbians

Press release from Leslie/Lohman Gallery

Lesbians Seeing Lesbians

Building Community in Early Feminist Photography

Exhibition Dates: September 14 to October 22, 2011
Opening Reception: September 13; 6 – 8 PM
at the Leslie/Lohman Gallery, 26 Wooster St., New York, NY, USA
Panel Discussion: September 15, 6-8 PM at the Leslie/Lohman Gallery featuring JEB and Cathy Cade, moderated by the exhibition curators Ilana Eloit, Julia Haas and Jonathan David Katz.

[August 2011 – New York, NY] In the wake of the Civil Rights movement, the 1970s brought a feminist revolution with lesbians, not always acceptably, to the forefront. In pursuit of personal and political liberation, lesbians photographed each other within an emerging lesbian feminist community, asserting their right to self-representation within a context of straight men, gay men and straight women.

Lesbians Seeing Lesbians

focuses on three of the most prominent photographers of this early generation: Tee A. Corrine (1943-2006: St. Petersburg, Florida), JEB (Joan E. Biren, b.1944: Washington D.C.), and Cathy Cade (b.1942: Honolulu, Hawaii). In addition, this exhibition pays tribute to these pioneering women by showing work of contemporary lesbian photographers Cass Bird, Angela Jimenez, Zanele Muholi and Catherine Opie, that engages and reworks their founding vision in contemporary lesbian life. This exhibition also includes key documents of the lesbian feminist and lesbian separatist movements from the Lesbian Herstory Archives.

Resisting the traditional heterosexist objectification of the female body, early lesbian photographers such as Tee Corrine, JEB and Cathy Cade reworked the representation of women in a new key, one that stressed not only the erotic allure of the female form, but its capacity to build, to nurture, and, not least, to resist. They gave widespread visibility to a new social ideal, born of that defining lesbian feminist notion that asked,

“Since women are no longer defined as accessories to men, what can, and should, a feminist society be?”

Panel Discussion September 15, 2011

This exhibition runs from September 14 through October 22, 2011 at the Leslie/Lohman Gallery, 26 Wooster Street, New York, NY. There will be an Opening Reception held on September 13 from 6 -8 pm in the gallery. On September 15, a panel discussion will be held from 6-8 PM at the Leslie/Lohman Gallery featuring JEB and Cathy Cade, moderated by the exhibition curators Ilana Eloit, Julia Haas and Jonathan David Katz.

About the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation

For more than 20 years, the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation’s (LLGAF) mission has been to preserve, exhibit and foster the creation of art that is created by LGBTQ artists or which speaks directly to gay and lesbian sensibilities, including erotic, political, romantic, and social imagery that resonates of queer experience. As we look to the future, our plan is to continue this mission and expand our programs and outreach to the community with the establishment of the Leslie/Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art.

Established as a non-profit organization in 1990, LLGAF has a permanent collection of more than 6,000 objects spanning more than three centuries of queer art. Our programs include regularly scheduled exhibitions, video events, workshop presentation of plays, artists’ and curator’s talks, panel discussions, THE ARCHIVE – a quarterly newsletter focusing on LGBTQ art and artists, a membership program, a research library and an archive of the permanent collection. LLGAF is the premier resource for anyone interested in the rich legacy of the LGBTQ community and its influence on and confrontation with the mainstream art world. There is no other organization in the world like us.

Related Links

Previous posts at Feminine Moments:

About Zanele Muholi: Inkanyiso by Queer Photographer Zanele Muholi, Zanele Muholi Show in Amsterdam 2010, Zanele Muholi on Swedish National TV, Zanele Muholi A Visual Artist and Activist and African Artist Creates New Strategies For Survival In Australia

About Angela Jimenez: Angela Jimenez Photography and Book: WELCOME HOME: Building the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival by Angela Jimenez

About Cass Bird: Artist talk: Queer Photographer Cass Bird

About Catherine Opie: Lesbian Art Herstory: Catherine Opie And Her Retrospective At the Guggenheim and Catherine Opie on New Topographics

About Tee A. Corrine: Remembering Lesbian Photographer Tee Corrine