Contemporary Female Artist of Today

Throughout the timeline of this class, we have tackled women and their art from Hildegard of Bingen who created art that was sent down from God to today's female artists who use social media to spread their creativity. Despite the time period, those female artists have represented several different themes, sometimes two at a time, ranging from gender, class, race, and art history. Each work of art by a woman that we have learned about this semester tells a story, tells the truth of their time and tells the truth of other women during that time. And the contemporary female artists that we have learned about are no different and have taken their mediums to a different level than what we have seen with the older generations of female artists.

Native of Newark, New Jersey and contemporary artist, Barbara Kruger creates collage art, famous for her layered photographs. All of her work inspires thought and offers assertive thinking, very different from the work she was doing prior to becoming an artist. Kruger used to be a head designer at a magazine company, which is where she got her inspiration from to create her art pieces. Kruger's art pieces attacks and critques the idea of mass media, magazines, and advertising, as seen in her art work layout. Most importantly, Kruger even uses the techniques of mass communication and advertising to critique gender and identity. Her pieces are found in areas that are able to reach a mass of populations, like train stations, skate parks, bus cards, and public posters.

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face) 1981

In the piece above, Kruger uses the element of the male gaze, a concept that we have explored earlier in the class. This piece specifically critiques desire, the desire of man, which is a woman. Some of Kruger's other pieces critique consumerism, the very idea that she supported and promoted during her time as a graphic designer for a magazine.

Barbara kruger, Untitled (I shop therefore I am) 1987

Continuing with the theme of gender and identity, a more recent and well known artist, Polly Norton uses Instagram to spread her art and messages. Polly Nor would be considered one of those artists who are 'Instafamous' as many of her pieces have been used in memes. However, Polly Nor's messages run deeper than a meme. Polly Nor tackles the theme of gender, and female sexuality in her many mediums of hand drawn illustrations, digital illustrations, sculpture, and installation work. Majority of her work is characterized and modeled by the events she has experienced in her life, as it pertains to being a woman. Her art tells the story that many women can identify with.

Polly Norton, Be You But Better, 2017

The above illutration explores the many faces that a female must present, instead of being her true self to others. The real presentation of a woman is not necessarily how the world wants to see women because today's society lives in a idealized world of what men and especially women should look like. Also, she always depicts the true woman as a devil. The devil represents the many female frustrations, daily struggles, and mixed memories that a woman carries with her on an everyday basis.

Contemporary African-American artist and silhouetist, Kara Walker, also incoporates the theme of gender, sexuality, and identity in her pieces, but her work mostly incorporates the theme of race. Walker is best known for her black and white silhouette pieces that focus on the event of slavery, which also caused controversy among the art world. Walker's Silhouette's depicted slaves on the plantation, which is what caused the controversy due to how she depicted slaves as happy, which is very different from how some slaves may viewed slavery.

Kara Walker, The Means to an End: A Shadow Drama in Five Acts, 1995

The above piece was agrued about because Walker depicted the slaves to be performing in a minstrel show, that was very demeaning to the existence of black slaves. Despite the back and forth, Walker's work was still celebrated and led to more of her accomplishments.

Another African-American female artist, Mickalene Thomas, celebrates the black community, along with celebrating the queer population, as she is queer herself. Her paintings embrace these populations and contribute value to their presentation by often adding rhinestones. She often explores the body in her art work, by brining the erotic side to her pieces, showing value to their bodies.

Mickalene Thomas, Sleep: Deux Femmes Noires, 2013

The painting/collage above explores the queer identity, where two black women are seen intertwined. The work displays their bodies and their feminity. Most importantly, it displays their sexuality as female lovers, a concept and sight that some audiences would be afraid of.

Folowing suit with the theme of race, and lastly, is Nona Faustine, who also incoporates the history of African descendants and African-Americans like Walker. Faustine is an American photographer and visual artist who uses areas and settings that were related to slavery to express its consequences and impact. 

Nona Faustine, White Shoes:Over My Dead Body, 2013

The above photograph's background is a court house in New York. Just underneath that courthouse is the burial ground of African slaves, hints the title. Faustine's work explores the history related to slavery, incorporating gender and race as well. Her nudity also explores the the female body, the femal body that is not necessarily represent in media and that is not accepted.

All five of these women have set the bar for female artists and their messages. They have become the future and have opened up the art world to more expression and concepts.

Works Cited

Barbara Kruger -. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.barbarakruger.com/

Kara Walker. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sikkemajenkinsco.com/kara-walker/

Mickalene Thomas. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.mickalenethomas.com/

Nona Faustine. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://nonafaustine.virb.com/home

POLLY NOR. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pollynor.com/