Woman: Self Portrait
KASHYA HILDEBRAND GALLERY

Opening: Thursday, June 1st 6-8pm

Dates: June 1st – July 1st, 2006

Location: KASHYA HILDEBRAND GALLERY 531 W. 25th St., New York, NY, 10001 – USA

Curator: Dalit Anolik

Tel: (212) 366-5757
Fax: (212) 366-4747
www.kashyahildebrand.org

Artists: Shirin Aliabadi, Michal Chelbin, Christina Dallas, Dalit Gurevich, Naomi Harris, Erika Harrsch, Tiina Itkonen, Adela Leibowitz, Lynne Marie, Leemour Pelli, Astari Rasjid, Julieta Schildknecht, Ginna Triplett, Patricia Von Ah, Sonja Wyss, Amanda Seelye-Salzman, Gabrielle Senza (Red Collaborative)

“Woman: Self Portrait” is a group exhibition composed of seventeen local and international women artists; offering a multi-cultural view of the contemporary female experience. As the title suggests, the artwork provides an insight into how women perceive themselves as artists, professionals, children, parents and members of society. In addition, it comments on how those self-perceptions might clash with their surrounding social and political environments.

This exhibition hopes to raise questions regarding roles, identity, responsibility and expectations related to gender, and most importantly – raise alertness to gender based violence. Above all, it hopes to welcome the viewer into one moment within the cycle of a woman’s life.

Although each artwork represents a personal and intimate experience of an individual artist, the issues raised here are very much universal. Whether the artist is from Iran, Indonesia, Israel, Mexico or the US – concepts such as female identity, sexuality, body image and sexual abuse (among others) are all translated into the language of art. Many of the participating artists have used art not only as a tool to express themselves, but also as an essential source of healing.

“Woman: Self Portrait” is a benefit exhibition to raise awareness and funds for the non-profit corporation V-Day (The ‘V’ stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina). This organization distributes funds to grassroots, national, and international organizations and programs that work to stop violence against women and girls. This exhibition is part of UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS: NYC, a festival of theater, spoken word, performance and community events created to bring the issue of violence against women and girls front and center in the culture and the community. The festival will take place during June 12 – 27.

*** FREE Special Event:
June 15th 6:30pm: In collaboration with V-Day’s campaign “Until the violence stops” – Artist talk by Erika Harrsch followed by Dr. Danielle Knafo, a psychoanalyst who will give a lecture entitled: “Revelations and Rage – Violence against women in the work of female artists.”

*10% of all sales will be donated to V-Day
For more information on V-Day and complete schedule of festival events please visit vday.org.