Image Courtesy of Hand Down Gallery.
Hands Down Gallery is a new gallery art space in the Bayview district that opened this Spring. I've attended past openings and I am excited to see this new show.
Hands Down Gallery's upcoming group exhibition Exotify Elsewhere features an all female lineup, who's work stems from intersectional feminism and their personal histories.
Exotify can mean to render someone different or foreign from oneself, where the one viewing becomes the norm and the one looked upon becomes other. Exotify Elsewhere is not only a project that continues to challenge the historic sexualization of women's bodies, but goes on further to disrupt the exotification of cultures and skin colors not rooted in whiteness. The Artists in EE deconstruct the idea of whiteness as the standard of womanhood that WOC must hold themselves to. In this, they simultaneously reject the racist and sexist systems that we live under today.
By defining ourselves for ourselves we rise from the oppressivelimitations of the male gaze and the violent exclusions of white-washed womanhood. This show serves as a platform for WOC to freely question and combat these conditions, and works toward a liberated woman of color whose struggles are seriously considered in the fight for social, sexual and economic justice. - Hands Down Gallery
Exotify Elsewhere, curared by Grace Sanabria and Taylor Davis, features work by
Dominique Carella
Leah Labrador
Haleigh Nickerson
Samera Paz
Cecilia Pena-Govea
Kayla Quan
Grace Sanabria
Anacani Serrato
Joon Yasue
Reception June 24, 6-10pm 4343 3rd St, Bldg B.
Exotify Elsewhere is on view through June 30, with viewing by appointment. Contact handsdowngallery@gmail.com for appointment or inquiries.
