Duality of Feminine

My grouping of red (and a few purple) Coin Cunts will be on view during the month of March at Gallery 66 NY in Cold Spring, New York. The exhibition, Duality of Feminine and Feminist, was juried by artist/curator Karen Gutfreund. These are some of the questions the artists were asked to ponder:

Endless news cycles emphasize the fragmentary nature of our present society and a divided nations’ opposition to a single logic or subject. With this in mind, how do women balance the duality of feminine and feminist? Should we be concerned with the manner in which a woman is portrayed as strong and/or feminine? In recent cultural movements, the ramifications of mixed gender attributes seemed to be growing in popularity yet with the recent elections and threats to women’s rights in particular, are we going backwards. This ability to carry the strengths of both genders is empowering but are we now dealing with a backlash? Is the current political atmosphere an attempt to return to the stereotypical view of women as submissive and passive?

Artworks in the Duality of Feminine and Feminist exhibit are varied with works on paper, glass, collage, porcelain, photography, painting, fabric, assemblage, appropriated imagery and mixed media, with messages just as varied.  The artists participating in this exhibit are from across the nation and include works by Torey Akers, Audrey Bernstein, Sarah Eagen, Sally Edelstein, Leslie Fandrich, Morgan Ford Willingham, Colleen Gahrmann, Lucy Julia Hale, Amy Hughes, Marie-Laure Ilie, Blond Jenny, Joan Lesikin, Lisa Levart, Sally Ann McKinsey Sisk, Jillian Nalty, Landon Newton, Antonella Piemontese, Jessica Putnam-Phillips, Suzanna Scott, Samantha Senack, Rosalind Shaffer, Allegra Shunk, Susan Singer, Dafna Steinberg, Gail Stouffer, Terrill Warrenburg, Jennifer Weigel, Galelyn Williams and Meghan Willis.

 Duality of Feminine and Feminist
Gallery 66 NY / Cold Spring, NY
March 3rd – April 2nd
Opening reception, March 3rd 6-9pm

Wage On!

WAGE ON! Women, Art, and Money will be the featured national exhibition of the 2017 Women’s Caucus for Art national conference in New York City. Hosted at Ceres Gallery, the exhibition offers a timely opportunity to address the impact of a changing political and economic landscape on women and art through the lens of twenty artists selected by juror Helga Christoffersen, an assistant curator at the New Museum. As she remarked: 

I looked to works that took on issues of woman’s work, rights, and identity today, in ways that speak to fundamental underlying issues in our society that affect us all. This exhibition is an important initiative and an example of a way to bring together a broad range of voices, opinions, and practices under a united and urgent cause.

My grouping of fourteen 'Coin Cunts' was selected to be included in the exhibition which runs through February 25th.

Participating Artists: Torey Akers, Judy Ballance, Veronica Ceci, Pauline Chernichaw, Dorit Jordan Dotan, Palmer Earl, Christine Giancola, Julia Gutman, J.J. L’Heureux, Jessica Mieles, Katy Mixon, B St. Marie Nelson, Suzanna Scott, Ember Small, Genevieve Walker, Leslie Wallstedt, Jill Waterhouse, Anna Watson, Heather Weathers and Diana Zipeto

WAGE ON! Women, Art, and Money

January 31 – February 25,  2017

Ceres Gallery, New York City

Tuesday – Sunday, 12-6pm

WCA will host public Artists Reception on Thursday, February 16 from 6-8 pm. A full-color catalogue will accompany the exhibition and is available for purchase here.

About the Women's Caucus For Art: Founded in 1972, the Women's Caucus For Art is the leading national organization for women engaged in the visual arts professions, an affiliated society of the College Art Association, a founding partner of The Feminist Art Project and a United Nations NGO. The mission of the Women's Caucus for Art is to create community through art, education, and social activism.

New Print

In light of recent political events here in the United States my series of 'Coin Cunts' has continued to gain interest and raise awareness of women's issues on many different fronts. I am continuing to seek out used kisslock coin purses with colorful and/or interesting interiors to grow the collection. As of its last installation this past summer it numbered over 100 pieces! 

This image is now available as a limited edition, poster-sized pigment print in my webshop. Its proceeds will be used to fund the growth of this project and its exhibition. You can purchase the new print here.

Shafts & Glands

An evolution of glandular shapes and biomorphic shafts, this family of Fiber Forms has been reproducing, and I've added several new ones to the website. 

I am thinking of the intricate web in/of our reproductive bodies and throughout the natural world. A tangle of coital life, I explore the animate and inanimate alike--whether ovaries, stamens, mammary glands or ancient fertility fetishes, modern sex toys and contraceptive devices. 

Through these forms I seek to meld the visual pleasures of knots and knobs with the endless labyrinth of time and sensual memory through repetitive twisting, wrapping and stitching. 

Read more about the process of creating these Fiber Forms.

Reform: Subversive Fashion

Last month, before our move, I finished stitching over 100 'Coin Cunts' and shipped them off to Albuquerque, NM. They will be included, along with work by four other artists, in an exciting counter-culture fashion exhibition opening Friday at Central Features Contemporary Art. This will be the largest installation of the 'Coin Cunts' thus far. 

Missouri-based artist Suzanna Scott challenges visual and societal perceptions with Coin Cunts, a collection of coin purses. By turning each purse inside out to reveal and reform the different interior linings, Scott teases the imagination and sparks conversation about the ties amongst sexuality, gender, money, and fashion. 

 Nancy Zastudil, Central Features Contemporary Art

A video posted by Suzanna Scott (@suzanna_scott) on Aug 23, 2016 at 8:24am PDT

Contemporary fashion is in question and on display this Fall season at Central Features Contemporary Art. Cross programming and promotion is presented in conjunction with the exhibition ReFashion at form & concept in Santa Fe, NM. ReForm: Subversive Fashion is an exhibition of select garments, accessories, and other adornments that thwart conventional expectations. The exhibition features JUMPSUIT by The Rational Dress Society, an installation by Suzanna Scott, an interactive dress by Nina Silfverberg, collages by Kirsten Stolle, and new textile work by Sarah Wagner. 

Reform: Subversive Fashion

August 26 - September 30

Central Features Contemporary Art

514 Central Ave SW #2, Albuquerque, NM

Opening Reception on Aug 26th, 6-8pm

Coin Cunt Print

The 'Coin Cunt' project began innocently last summer when I was playing around with an old coin purse. I flipped it inside out, and saw a vaginal form emerge from my playful pinching and tucking. Using a needle and thread I stitched it into place. As I thought about it, I found so much association between the little pocket-like forms and the inferred suggestions that these new objects brought to mind.

I began sharing the 'Coin Cunts' on social media and am amazed at the feedback it has provided. With a simple alteration these ubiquitous objects became evocative and their appeal provocative when I dubbed them 'Coin Cunts'. Aside from the chuckles, I've found that others can see in this project our assumed cultural associations of money and women, prostitution, female genital mutilation, suppression of women, gender equality, body image ideals, equal pay and the list continues to grow.

Ever since the 'Coin Cunt' images began making their rounds on social media I've had to turn down numerous purchase requests. My goal with this project is to grow the collection until I have a large installation of 100 or more. In order finance the rest of this project and give you an opportunity to enjoy this image on a daily basis I'm offering a limited edition of 25 pigment prints on my website.

A video posted by Suzanna Scott (@suzanna_scott) on May 24, 2016 at 7:55am PDT

Quicksand

Josh Stone, SV#3B, 2015, HD Video.

Another venue for a second grouping of my Coin Cunts presented itself this month: QUICKSAND, a pop-up exhibit at the New Art Center in Newton, MA, features work that disrupts expectation by erasing, covering, and fracturing the human form, asking broader questions about the spectrum of cultural visibility. Through the lens of a fragmentary experience, the body becomes an allusion, goes missing, or is present as a mere impression. The figure on view here is unstable, like quicksand, and contends with the boundaries of identity, territory, and the negation of the body through technology. 

Quicksand

April 29 - May 8, 2016

A MassArt Production at The New Art Center, Newton MA

Reception: Friday April 29th, 6pm-8pm

Featured artists include Salome Asega, Casey Ausman, Bashezo, AK Burns, Carlos Jimenez Cahua, Caleb Cole, Furen Dai, Allison M. Disher, Janet Loren Hill, Pope L., Curtis Mann, Susan Metrican, Alyssa Minahan, Landon Newton, Diana Jean Puglisi, John Robert Roy, Suzanna Scott, Corinne Spencer, Josh Stone, Triiibe, Xtina Wang, Xu Wang, Joe Zane

The exhibit has been organized by the Massachusetts College of Art and Design’s Graduate Seminar in Curatorial Practice class taught by Dina Deitsch.

The Female Complex

My Coin Cunt collection has taken on a life of its own thanks to the wonders of social media. I've been invited by artist, Kristin Mahan to participate in The Female Complex at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where these twenty-eight fiber pieces will be making their debut. The vaginal shaped works are sculpted from inside-out coin purses.

Feminism is nothing new-it has been around for more than a century-so why is it still so important to this day? As society progresses and the older waves of feminism accomplish much of what they set out to do, problems that were always there but never dealt with have begun to rise to the surface. "The Female Complex" will present the multiplicity of the emerging wave of feminism through contemporary art. Each of the 12 artists presented uses personal experiences to inform their work, which allows the work to be honest. The wide variety of mediums and subject matter in this exhibition will form a dialogue that reflects the diversity of issues placed under the umbrella of this developing feminist movement. 

Kristin Mahan, curator

Participating artists include Samantha Aasen, Brooke Denton, Jeanne Donegan, Tessa Edgren, Lisa Guevara, Sheree Haynie, Katie Hovencamp, Kayla Linden, Roberta Malkin, Sidney Mullis, Claudia Rose, and Suzanna Scott. 

The Female Complex

Curated by Kristin Mahan

MEDICI Gallery / Richards Hall

Monday, April 18

Closing Reception April 22 / 5-7 pm