As a grassroots, fourth wave of feminism emerges, the female gaze has heightened the stakes of engagement and created new parameters for the representation of identity. Megan Steinman, independent curator and Director of The Underground Museum checks in with artists Kandis Williams and Chloe Aftel on this pressing and complex topic. Presented by the Lucie Foundation at photo l.a.
Moderator: Megan Steinman is an independent curator, writer, and Director of The Underground Museum in Los Angeles. Megan's exhibition projects exploring performance, photography and new media art have been shown at institutions around the world, including Museo Pecci Milano, Dolby Gallery, Sonos Studio Los Angeles, the Santa Monica Museum of Art, District Berlin, ICA Boston, the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). She has written for and/or produced several artist books, including Edges of the Experiment by Marie-Josè Jongerius, Dance/Draw by Helen Molesworth, and American Music by Annie Leibovitz. Megan holds a Master of Public Art Studies from the University of Southern California Roski School of Fine Art.
Panelists:
Kandis Williams (b. 1985, Baltimore, MD) received her B.F.A. in 2008 from the Cooper Union School of Art, New York. Her recent exhibitions include solo shows at SADE, Los Angeles, and St. Charles Projects, Baltimore, and a performance and workshop at Human Resources, Los Angeles. Her work has also been exhibited at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; The Underground Museum, Los Angeles; Neu West and 68 Projects, Berlin; and The Breeder, Athens, among other spaces. Williams has an active curatorial and writing practice, and runs Cassandra Press with artist Taylor Doran.
Chloe Aftel has a strong focus on narrative photography and an MFA from USC in film production. She sees each photograph as a one-frame movie still and each person as someone with a story to tell. In exploring gender, identity and sensuality, chloe strives to create striking, nuanced, complicated female characters. she specializes in using cinematic techniques in still frame images.