In this collectively organized exhibit, Body Burdens is an exploration of the multiple ways in which emotional toxins are held in the body. Curators worked with local female-identifying artists to produce a collection of figurative paintings that present both mental and physical responses to intense, indescribable feelings. Allocating the role of curator to 17 people already challenges traditional modes of organization within a gallery space. However, it also produces a burden when the collective body tries to express itself. Disruptions in communication and decision-making were common, but ultimately this process widened the scope of consideration for what Body Burdens means.
Claudia Bitrán (b. 1986), a multimedia artist from Chile, works primarily in painting and video, frequently using DIY aesthetics to represent the hyperbolic worlds of social media and pop culture. The artist employs a wide range of painting strategies to metamorphosize her source material, resulting in dense and thick surfaces that transform the content of the artist’s research. She holds an MFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design (2013), a BFA from the Universidad Catolica de Chile (2009) and was recently an artist-in-residence at Pioneer Works, New York. Bitrán currently lives and works in Brooklyn, teaching painting at Pratt Institute and Sarah Lawrence College, and is a guest critic at SIA in Beijing.
