Jun 26th 2010

In a Plain Brown Wrapper

@ Johalla Projects

1561 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622

Opening Saturday, June 26th, from 7PM - 11PM

On view through Saturday, July 3rd

A mixed media exhibition curated by Barbara DeGenevieve.

In a Plain Brown Wrapper is an exhibition of work that would not be shown in many other venues. It is the end of the first decade of the 21st century and yet the discomfort of the majority of people in regard to naked bodies or talk about sex still fuels the debate about what is appropriate for public display, and whether it is pornographic, or worse, obscene.

Public offense and keeping the children safe from images that might “damage them” are the reasons invoked most often when art with sexual content is brought into question. This show opens for discussion the fact that pornography has become the filter through which imagery of the sexual/sexualized body is understood, analyzed, controlled by law, and condemned even by a population that regularly indulges in its fantasies.

The artists in this exhibition are aware of pornography’s grip on America’s cultural consciousness but are not interested in commenting on hypocrisy. Instead they make work that is related to porn and its numerous tropes, and in doing so, make defiant statements about sex, sexuality, gender, power and the role of fantasy in all our lives.

Featuring work by Steven Frost, Elisa Garza, Elise Goldstein, Emerson Granillo, Jesse Hites, Jacob King, Ivan Lozano, Joelle McTigue, Karina Natis, Clare O’Sadnick, Edward Rossa, Joshua Sampson, Talaya Schmid, Kristen Stokes, Jaroslaw Studencki, Bu Tu, Wayama Woo and Meredith Zielke.

Official Website

More events on this date

Tags: ,