Show Me as I Want to Be Seen

Exhibition Website

Feb 7 2019 - Jul 7 2019


How do we depict “the self” if it is unknowable, inherently constructed, and ever changing? How does the concept of portraiture shift when categories are in crisis, and visibility itself is problematic? Jewish thought on performed and fluid identity can be interpreted in the book of Esther, and in the notion of G-d as “I am that I am,” ineffable and non-binary. These ideas uphold a Jewish understanding of the self as intrinsically mutable, unknowable, and yet self-determined, themes that animate Show Me as I Want to Be Seen.

Taking the work of French Jewish artist and writer Claude Cahun (1894–1954) and her lifelong lover and collaborator Marcel Moore (1892–1972) as its starting point, Show Me as I Want to Be Seen examines the complex and empowered representation of a fluid identity. Cahun (born Lucy Schwob) and Moore (born Suzanne Malherbe) are recognized as pioneers in their bold representations of an unfixed self. This exhibition positions their work in dialogue with ten contemporary artists whose artworks—in mediums ranging from painting and sculpture to video and 3-D mapping—also address the opaque, constructed, and shifting self. The contemporary artists in the exhibition are Nicole Eisenman, Rhonda Holberton, Hiwa K, Young Joon Kwak, Zanele Muholi, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Gabby Rosenberg, Tschabalala Self, Davina Semo, and Isabel Yellin.


Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.   
Tschabalala Self, Perched, 2016. Oil, acrylic, flashe, handmade paper, fabric, and found material. Courtesy of the artist and Kate Werble Gallery, New York. Photo: Elizabeth Bernstein.      
  • Various Media
  • International
  • Claude Cahun
  • Marcel Moore
  • Nicole Eisenman
  • Rhonda Holberton
  • Hiwa K
  • Young Joon Kwak
  • Zanele Muholi
  • Toyin Ojih Odutola
  • and others

Exhibition Venues & Dates