Festering
Opening Reception:
Thursday, July 13th, 6 - 9pm
Conversation with the Artist:
Saturday, July 29th, 3 - 4:30pm
Gallery Hours:
Saturdays 12 - 5pm and by appointment
July 13, 2023 - August 5, 2023
A solo exhibition of new works by Alicia Link
Inflamed nipple tips, forms encrusted with pain and other sediments of living, the enervating discomforts of being in a body in need of care: In her objects, ink drawings, and video piece, Alicia Link searingly probes the struggle for reproductive rights and basic health care that femme, gender nonconforming, and transgender people find themselves in, one year after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
In 2022, Link began attempting to address the debilitating pain she was experiencing due to a medical issue. As she reflects on her recent efforts to navigate our increasingly stymied and invasive medical system, she conjures organs and other deeply interior spaces of the body, turning them inside out where their raw surfaces may breathe against the air, and she places them into the everyday liminal space of the doctor’s waiting room. Gynecological tools and devices are hermetically sealed into hospital cubicle curtains that are patterned with images from the artist’s own hysteroscopy. Standing in for the sinister and ever-mercurial Billing Department, a grubby sculpted phone rests indefinitely off the hook.
As Link’s forms wait, and wait, they seem to be in a state of transmutation. They are on the verge. They fester, curdle, seethe. Some of the forms sprout legs, though these newfangled limbs look unable to bear weight or to get up and carry their beings away from this place. Their anger reminds us that interventions for pain and life-threatening medical events cannot wait. Their interminable patience asks for action.
Alicia Link is an artist and educator whose multidisciplinary work uses the concept and form of collage to piece together material and information addressing systems of power, the body and the invisibility of trauma. She holds a BFA in Painting from Boston University and an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin. Link has participated in residencies at Tiger Strikes Asteroid in Philadelphia, PA, and Vermont Studio Center, where she was a residency fellowship recipient. She has exhibited at galleries and arts centers across the US, including Space Heater Gallery, Brooklyn; Roy G Biv Gallery, Columbus, OH; and the Visual Arts Center in Austin, TX. She currently teaches at Moore College of Art & Design, Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University and Fleisher Art Memorial.
Curated by Addison Namnoum