The women in Liz Capote’s drawings exist only partially — they have no heads, no faces. Some are severed through the middle, while others fold over onto themselves, tangled masses of limbs that were once whole beings. They have been broken and cut into; others are simply missing pieces of themselves.
There are dozens of these drawings; they feature simple, outlined figures and nearly all are colored by thick, crisp red lines that slice across the page. In one, a kneeling woman holds a small hand to her abdomen, a mess of bright red draining from her center.
Capote was forced to undergo an abortion at the age of 22. (She is now 23.) Her response to her loss, “PALINDROMO,” can be seen at Pendleton Street Photography’s new exhibition GRL PWR: My Generation/Mi Generación through Nov. 17.
Unveiled on Oct. 17 as a part of The Carnegie’s Art of She biannual event series, the exhibition is a project of Bridges Not Walls, a Cuban-American art exchange that has previously hosted shows at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. Curated by Yudith Vargas Riverón, GRL PWR features the work of six young female artists — three from Havana, Cuba (Capote, Osy Miliàn and Evelyn Sosa) and three from Cincinnati (Sydney Green, Kimberly Kells and Katelyn Wolary).
GRL PWR brings women’s issues to the forefront through anecdotal, deeply personal works that reflect on bodily autonomy, femininity, agency and power. It also shines light on a new generation of artists — all of the featured artists are under 30 years old. Ultimately, Vargas Riverón says she wanted to uplift personal stories and showcase women’s resilience through a feminist lens.
“There are a lot of important Cuban female artists right now, but even when their art reflects femininity, they don’t consider themselves feminist artists,” she says. “I prefer to work with young artists because I feel that we are braver maybe than our mothers and grandmothers.”
GRL PWR doesn’t shy away from addressing sexism and oppression, and calls attention to issues of birth control, abortion and assault.
Kimberly Kells reflects on the aftermath of assault in a series depicting the eventual decay of an array of desserts, a metaphor for the desirability of women’s bodies. Alongside the paintings sit a bouquet of flowers that will rot by the exhibition’s end and the artist’s own journals, laid bare for the audience.
Sydney Green plays with power dynamics and vulnerability in “Relationships,” a saturated pattern of a woman pressed against an alligator with its mouth ajar; while protected in the soft underbelly of the creature, it could just as easily eat her alive.
The exhibition also flips the script on the expectations and limits of femininity and gives the artists the power to decide who a woman is allowed to be. Through black and white photography and surreal, technicolor paintings, respectively, Evelyn Sosa and Osy Miliàn shift their focus to contemporary portrayals of women outside the confines of objectification. Meanwhile, works by Katelyn Wolary showcase a place where the artist feels truly herself: at home.
Simply put: GRL PWR provides its artists with the space and respect to candidly tell the stories of their own lives, stories with commonalities that stretch far beyond borders.
“We want to scream — like a metaphorical scream,” Vargas Riverón says. “We wanna show what we are dealing with. Those problems are universal. Somehow those problems (and) those ideas connect us. It’s important to show that Cubans and American people are the same, even when our governments disagree in mostly everything.”
GRL PWR: My Generation/Mi Generación runs through Nov. 17 at Pendleton Street Photography (1310 Pendleton St., Pendleton). Searchable on Facebook.
