Women and Girls
Works by Kathy Black
Consuming the Goddess, Kathy Black, Oil on Panel, 14” x 11” , $550.00
Copley Studio Gallery
January 20 - April 9, 2022
River Arts presents Women and Girls on display in the Copley Studio Gallery from January 20th till April 9th, 2022.
What does it mean to be for a woman or girl to have power?
Inspired by a directive for self-empowerment in a horoscope, “seek the goddess, embrace the goddess, consume the goddess,” the painting series Consuming the Goddess imagines women consuming an object of love or deep meaning. A woman eating her beloved person, entity or object is horrifying if the beloved is a child, and still disturbing it is a pet, or daemon of sorts, or a significant object. From this extreme example, I wonder if our expectations of women always conflict with a sense of appetite? Is desire also empowerment?
Can we think about female power without clashing with expectations of motherhood and femininity?
Women and Girls features work inspired by two related threads: the experience of changing perspectives and exploring the connections that run between women at different points of life. Kathy Black’s paintings look at roles women and girls take on to explore and think about how they might be or what they might do. Maybe it looks at changing lives and changing bodies with each age. Or maybe the shifts over time reveal the ordinary yet important moments of similarities.
Kohara is a woman with a freshly caught fish. Images of women hunting and fishing are less common than men, but these activities don’t exclude women. Is there space for women in roles of action, showing appetite or desire that is not erotic? Merging the image of Eve, the first woman in the bible story, with goddesses from other cultures, All of Eden investigates creation stories. Her many breasts celebrate her fertility and sexuality. Her pose, with a look in multiple directions, an apple tree in her hand, a fading snake, and a garden of melons at her feet allow us to feel that this woman owns her power and suggests self-determination.
Women are grandmothers, mothers, and daughters who work, play, care, and are cared for.
Cerealia, Essential Staff, Anchor, and Night Shift, and other works show women and girls at work, play, or in family care. These characters are connected. The drudge of work becomes a moment of innovation and authority, a mother’s imagination creates a safe passage. These lively flags of compressed time show commonalities which telescope the shift between the women and girls, between then and now, and what we might imagine to be next.
Exhibition Reception and Artist Talk
Thursday, January 27th
5:30 to 7:30pm
Selections from the Exhibition
Kathy Black grew up in Chicago, Illinois, received a BA in English from the University of Illinois, Champaign, a BFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MFA in painting from Tyler School of Art, Temple University. She was awarded fellowships for the Oxbow residency, MI, and the La Napoule Symposium and Residency in France as well as a Graduate Fellowship at Temple University. Kathy Black currently works as the Program Director at the Vermont Studio Center, a residency program for artists and writers in Johnson.
Before moving to Johnson, VT and the Vermont Studio Center, Black taught art and art history full and part time at several Vermont colleges. Her work has been presented in numerous solo exhibitions, most recently at Axel’s Gallery in Waterbury, Vt and, upcoming, at River Arts, Morrisville, VT. Other area exhibits include Northern VT University, Vermont Studio Center, Rhode Island Community College and Washington Art Center, CT. Recent group shows include Arts Connect, Catamount Art Center, St. Johnsbury, VT, Witchy, Ely Center of Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT and New England Collective X, Galatea Fine Art, Boston, MA.
Currently, Kathy Black lives and works in Johnson, Vermont.