ArtYard is pleased to present Girl You Want, curated by J. Vanessa Lyon and featuring artists Genevieve Gaignard, Julia Greenburger, Jen Liu, Josh Rabineau, Wendy Red Star and Beatrice Red Star Fletcher, Karinne Smith, Ivy Stewart, and María Vargas Aguilar. This exhibition inaugurates ArtYard’s two-story gallery in its newly completed arts center on 13 Front Street, overlooking the Delaware River.
“It’s a privilege to have curated ArtYard’s inaugural exhibition in this stunning and sophisticated new building — and to have that space inhabited by phenomenal work by artists keenly attuned to the machinations and manifestations of gender in culture and nurture. This is a show about growing up but this is a gallery that is re-envisioned and fully formed — the new ArtYard is poised to continue making gorgeous, thought-provoking, and even more transformative exhibitions.
“Through the windows of race, gender, class, sexuality, and dis/ability, people perceive and are perceived,” says J. Vanessa Lyon. “Media shapes our assumptions and children are regarded by others and themselves as the good or bad or real or best kind of girl.”
Girl You Want gives onto this fraught expanse of coming of age. In diverse, often subtle, forms the exhibition’s nine artists conjure up temporalities that, depending on one’s circumstances, can end traumatically, too soon — or imperceptibly — before awkwardly (or seamlessly) segueing into adulthood. While far from comprehensive of the countless embodiments of girlhood and youthful femininity across identity and experience, the exhibition asks: What leaves girls wanting? What do we want from them? What is it like to mature or grow out of girlhood — or to have one’s growth undermined by it? Gazing back as we move inexorably forward, this ambitious multimedia show provides an intergenerational response.
When: Wednesdays through Sundays from 11am–5pm through August 1, 2021
Where: ArtYard, 13 Front Street, Frenchtown, NJ 08825
Schedule & Registration: eventbrite.com
About ArtYard
ArtYard is a contemporary art gallery, theater, and residency program located in Frenchtown, NJ in the Delaware River Valley, a 75-minute drive from New York City and Philadelphia. ArtYard presents a diverse array of art exhibitions, performances, film screenings, and poetry events. ArtYard’s mission is to serve as an incubator for creative expression and a catalyst for collaborations that reveal the transformational power of art.
Visit artyard.org to learn more.
Find us on Instagram @artyardcenter and Facebook @artyardfrenchtown.
