Glass Ceiling: Art of Resilience and Fragility

About

Coined for the first time by Marilyn Loden in her 1978 speech, the term “the glass ceiling” has gained further resonance within the current political and social climate prevalent in the United States and across the globe. The autonomy of women in the social arena in the U.S. has followed a considerable trajectory, from the Seneca Fall Convention in 1848 to Hillary Clinton’s announcement of her presidential candidacy on June 13, 2015. However, the heftiness of a glass ceiling seems overwhelming—and perishable, not only for women, but for those facing perpetual impediment due to gender and race.

Organized by Osman Can Yerebakan, the exhibition interprets the metaphorical conception of a glass ceiling, defining impalpable challenges imposed on certain groups of individuals, while materializing this expression through glass, a medium linked to women through ideas of decoration that has historically been dominated by men. Either working in sculpture to employ the fragile, yet resolute nature of glass or using its aesthetic luster in film or photograph to capture fluidity and resilience, the artworks manifest endurance and assurance in their statements, daringly embodying elegance and allure on the surface. Jes Fan’s wax dumbbells on pillowy glassbubbles comment on masculinity norms through the tension between two mediums, while AK Burns and Katherine Hubbard’s mixed media sculpture puts glass in conversation with other mediums to build an all-embracing narrative on memory and womanhood.

Featuring work by artists including: Adel Abdessemed, A.K. Burns & Katherine Hubbard, Alexandra Ben-Abba, Anna Campbell, Jes Fan, Alison Kudlow, Louise Lawler, Jennifer Wen Ma, Suzanne McClelland, Omar Mismar, Sable Elyse Smith, and Louis Zoellar Bickett.