The Contested Body

Contemporary artists approach the human body not as a fixed and stable entity, but rather as a fluid, contested site for the creation of meaning. The works in this exhibition present the varied expressions of gender, race, and sexuality not as biological givens but as cultural constructs performed through everyday actions and mannerisms. The Contested Body features loaned objects and recent acquisitions of work by artists Emma Amos, Sadie Benning, Sharon Hayes, George Segal, Lorna Simpson, Martin Wong, and Portia Zvavahera, among others in which the body is reimagined as a site of agency, empowerment, celebration, and struggle in an attempt to encompass the complexity and multiplicity of the human condition.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website