Navigating Complex Terrain:
Themes in Contemporary Art Since 1980 – Part II: Identity and the Body
Paula Burleigh, Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow, Whitney Museum of American Art

The body was a battleground for the Culture Wars in the 1980s, when picturing the body took on various politicized meanings against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic and Reagan-era politics. We will look at works by artists like Robert Mapplethorpe, David Wojnarowicz, Nan Goldin and Catherine Opie to think about the importance of representing the body in order to affirm personhood and picture communities that were otherwise pushed to the margins of visibility. Moving to the present day, we will explore the “post-human” body, focusing on artists who create hybrid, technological, or otherwise partially non-human bodies in order to imagine how our identities might undergo radical shifts in the 21st century as result of diaspora, climate change and other factors. Examples will include works by Wangechi Mutu, Josh Kline and Ruby Amanze.

LOCATION: the Suburban Club (7600 Park Heights) 
$15 door fee for guests and subscribers