ART CITIES: N.York-Ghada Amer

Ghada Amer is best known for her subversive embroidered paintings that appropriate imagery from pornographic magazines as a means of creating an entirely feminine and feminist language of painting. She studied at the Villa Arson in Nice, where she was told that certain painting classes were reserved exclusively for male students. This served as the pivotal moment for Amer’s practice, at which point she began to create her own unique space within the medium of painting.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Tina Kim Gallery Archive

A pioneering feminist artist of the post-colonial generation, Ghada Amer is considered a force to be reckoned with, advocating for female agency and empowerment in the current contemporary art landscape. This exhibition marks the debut of her monumental sculptures, collectively entitled the “Paravent Girls” in New York. Commissioned for her major career retrospective that took place across three venues in Marseille, France (2022), three of the largest scale sculptures included were displayed under the rotunda of the historic chapel of the La Vieille-Charité (a former house of charity and asylum). The works that are on” view at Tina Kim Gallery are a culmination of the artist’s years of experimentation and research. Amer’s sculptural journey began with ceramics before its manifestation in bronze; these new works signal a veritable breakthrough in her artistic trajectory. Ghada Amer has been committed to exploring issues surrounding women– the politics of their representation and their cross cultural perception. Amer’s wide-ranging, daring art practice that spans over three decades, is unrestricted by medium. She is equally at ease with two-dimensional works on canvas or paper, ceramics, site-specific garden works, and mixed-media installations. Many works in Amer’s oeuvre begin with female nude images appropriated from pornographic magazines. While typically viewed as a vehicle for male pleasure, Amer’s works transform them into emblems of women in states of euphoria, ecstasy, and liberation. Although seemingly anonymous, several female subjects depicted in the series identifiable names; for example, “Suzy Playing”, “Jennifer and Barbara” and “L’étonnement d’ Amélie” (all 2022). Amer begins by painting these figures onto the unfolded surfaces of discarded cardboard boxes, before transferring these portraits into clay, redrawing each of their features in relief. The clay models are cast, eventually realized as bronze sculptures. Amer’s tactile approach is reflected in the raised ridges of the outline across the surface that reveal the imprint of the artist’s hand. A quality of tenderness is brought to light upon close examination. Titled the “Paravent Girls,” this series exemplifies Amer’s long-standing concern regarding the gaze and the power dynamics at work in the act of looking. Paravents, or “folding screens,” were utilized as privacy devices, often used to conceal an (undressing) woman from view. Mass media have often portrayed screens in scenes of flirtation, seduction, or even outright violations of privacy. Thus, Amer’s primary material of unfolded cardboard boxes serve as a visual metaphor to these screens, calling attention to the roles of the viewer and the viewed. In the “Paravent Girls”, the female figure is depicted on both sides of the sculpture, as if to defy conservative notions of modesty.

Photo:  Ghada Amer, WITCHES (detail), 2023, Embroidery on muslin, Set of 12 / Edition of 8, © Ghada Amer, Courtesy the artist and Tina Kim Gallery

Info: Tina Kim Gallery, 525 West 21st Street, New York, NY, USA, Duration: 26/10-9/12/2023, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, https://tinakimgallery.com/