Get Naked
The sexualized woman less controversial
The Stranger, SLOG Seattle Times, Art Review
Huffington Post, Arts & Culture
Sarah B Whalen
Sarah Barsness
Caitlin Berndt
Erin M Riley
September 5 - October 12, 2013
How do women view their own sexually social bodies? Provocative, participatory, sensual, spiritual, empowered and introspective; Get Naked is a group exhibition of women artists depicting the sexually imbued female form.
Artists: Sarah Barsness · Caitlin Berndt · Claire Brandt · Shelly Corbett Yanhong Ma · Amanda Manitach · Erin M Riley · Sarah B Whalen
About: Get Naked
Bryan Ohno Gallery’s current exhibition Get Naked seeks to explore a female artist’s perspective on the contemporary state of female social sexual lives. In part, the exhibition has roots in Ohno’s 2000 exhibition of work by Lynda Benglis, an artist known for pushing gender boundaries in her 1974 ArtForum ad. Get Naked includes over thirty works of art by eight female artists from five geographic locations and spanning ages from 25 to 50, setting the stage for an explosion of differing viewpoints on sexual expression.
Erin M. Riley makes the sexualized woman less controversial by contrasting the ancient art making practice of loom weaving with the recent phenomenon of sexting; elongating a lightning fast digital process for a closer and more critical look.
Sarah B. Whalen’s Shunga-esque and stark drawings of rapturous copulating couples with focus on female bliss contrast with the fragile, flickering and buzzing energy embodied by Amanda Manitach’s figures. Both artists capture a deeply emotional assessment of the physical body and it’s relation to others.
Claire Brandt and Sarah Barsness depict their own bodies; Brandt paints her own form with verity, building layers of paint sculpturally from the inside out from dark to light. In Barsness’ silverpoint etched photographs, drowsy lines created by flashlight trace her body as it recedes into a hazy network of rune-like shapes.
In Shelly Corbett’s underwater photographs, the women float ethereally free and indifferent of gaze; their coloring heightened for extreme and perfecting effect. While Corbett’s photographs suggest freedom, Caity Berndt’s many layered paintings allude to doubt; each narrative a palimpsest of sex-positive attitude tempered with restraint.
The work of Yanhong Ma introduces a Chinese perspective. After perfecting a very academic and technical method of hyper-realistic painting, Ma channels her formidable talent into capturing the young women of contemporary China. Always depicted in a private setting, Ma captures candidly informal moments in a formal society.
Get Naked's eight artists bring perspective to a spectrum of female sexuality as it evolves and adapts to aging and shifting social norms.
Claire Brandt
Shelly Corbett
Amanda Manitach
Yanhong Ma
