Comprehending Gender: An Exploration of Identity
Artists who present work addressing the varying descriptions and identities surrounding gender.
We have a diverse set of artists who span the gender spectrum, expressing the wide array of identities through their art work. We are very proud to showcase their work and have them represent what BUTCH Voices embodies as an organization and community.
The art will be shown at the Thursday night meet and greet at club 21, and artists will briefly speak about their work.
After the opening night, the artwork will be moved to the grand ballroom in the BUTCH Voices conference hotel, the Oakland City Center Marriott, for all attendees to view.
Featuring works by:
Irene Fubara-Manuel is a Nigerian immigrant who moved to Canada in her formative teen years. Having no direct role models for gender performance, she traces African roots into a hybrid expression.
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Daddi Cole uses art to raise awareness in the African American Community about consensual Dominance/submission and about other nonconventional dynamics in healthy relationships. To entertain & to enlighten, DC -a.k.a. Drag King LEGEND Rx- offers photography, collage exhibition; community talks & workshops; & erotic demonstration & performance. Awarded recognition in 2012 for community service by the Leather Community organization Black Expressions Alternative Tastes (blackbeatinc.org), Daddi Cole raises awareness of alternative sexualities.
Wendi Kali is a self identified Butch with a passion for photography. The Butch/Femme Photo Project is a journey through the individual and unique identities of Femme and Butch captured in a photojournalistic style of photography. Standing in the belief that there is not one way to be Butch or Femme, my hope is to convey to the viewer the diversity that exists within these ever evolving identities.
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Meg Allen was born in 1978 in San Francisco, California. Butch was always a term that I knew described me, even if I didn’t always fit the exact description. And what is the exact description? Looking around me, the fashion, the hairstyles, the increased acceptance of gay in America, I decided to put it to my community to tell me, because in the sixteen years that I’ve been out, it’s evolved into a handsome variety. BUTCH is a series to document and showcase the butch landscape as it stands in 2013. For more, please check out megallenstudio.com.
Jess Lauren Lipton is a sculptor and photographer with a fondness for six pack rings and toy soldiers. She uses the monicker of Pop Killed Culture even though she secretly knows she’s a pop artist.
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Mel Reiff Hill makes pictures (among other things). They have a studio art degree from Rice University, and do all design, graphics, and art for the GENDER book Project. Learn more: rowdyferret.com
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J.S. Walls creates art using photography, graphite, conte, maker, watercolor, acrylic, and mixed media. My work includes both realistic and abstract styles using various methods of application in the creation. My work encompasses a variety of subject matters and ideas including the concept of my evolving identity through a series of self portraits I have created over the last 13 years. Currently, I have embarked on a series of portraits that include individuals within the vast gender spectrum. J.S. Walls is a two and three dimensional artist and film maker. During Jay’s career, she has been in several juried art exhibitions, displayed in various galleries and commissioned by patrons.
Morningstar Vancil has been a People of Color (POC) activist in the areas of Immigration, Human Rights, Domestic Partnership and Tribal Alliance-building. I have served as a volunteer for the Two- Spirit Groups Archives of the Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Trans-gendered (LGBT) Historical Society, spoken on POC panel discussions and co-founded ForS/mWoC, an organization dedicated to creating an equal and harmonious relationship among the S/M communities. I am a member of Kreabito, a Filipino performance arts troupe, Butch Magic, a drag king troupe, and Neskenukut, a coalition of Native American artists in Northern California. I am a founding member and former officer of the Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits and serve on the LGBT Advisory Board of the Human Rights Commission (City of San Francisco).