Molly Crabapple. Annotated Muses

About

This will be Crabapple's first exhibition in three years.
The show will consist of 11 paintings: portraits of ten women and one man.

Crabapple created elaborate portraits of her "muses": friends, peers and heroes that are activists, journalists, artists, porn stars, musicians, philosophers, witches et al.

The process of making the paintings is three-step. First, she collects her own travel ephemera, and the papers that mean the most to her friends -- their code and manuscripts, military IDs and tarot cards, love letters and eviction notices. Then, she draws her subject on each paper. She draws her friend hundreds of times, their mouths, bodies, eyes, hands. She draws them just out of bed, and as they appear onstage. Their public personas. Their private faces. Then, she makes these portraits into a background for a large scale painting. The third step involves giving control over to her subjects, literally. She hands them the paintbrush, allowing them to annotate, adorn or deface their portraits, in whatever manner they see fit. In "Annotated Muses," the muse is no longer silent. The muse talks back.

Last in the group, a six foot tall, eight foot wide portrait of Stoya will be annotated by her at the opening of the show.

The Muses:

Stoya
is a porn performer, aerialist and writer

Serene Han
is a hacker and classical pianist

Akynos
is a stripper, sex worker, sex worker activist -- as well as a producer, curator, writer.

Kim Boekbinder
is a rock star

Fuck Theory
is a philosopher

Katelan Foisy
is an artist, writer and witch

Jen Dziura
is an educator, columnist and author

Natasha Lennard
is a journalist and anarchist

Chelsea G. Summers
is a writer about sex

Najva Sol
is a photographer and writer

Sara Jafary
is a biochemist and revolutionary