The Female Body and Identity: Four Artists from Body & Soul: New International Ceramics Museum of Arts and Design

Anthony Merino

Anthony Merino

Abstract

In her influential book The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir presented a radical notion that "one is not born a woman but becomes one" (Beauvoir, 2011, p. 283). In this essay, I explore how four artists—Klara Kristalova, Jessica Harrison, Chris Antemann, and Tip Toland—visually present in their ceramic work different nuances of Beauvoir's thesis on the social construction of women's identity. From an analysis of the four artists' work in the 2013-2014 exhibition, Body & Soul: New International Ceramics, held at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, I tease out contemporary views on body and identity in selected ceramic work by four artists.

Author Biography

Anthony Merino

Anthony Merino is a curator and critic working from Adams, Massachusetts. Mr. Merino's first review was published in the January 1993 issue of the New Art Examiner. Since 1993, he has had more than 100 reviews published and given lectures on contemporary arts internationally. He is a frequent contribution to Popmatters, ArtsFuse, Arts & Opinion and Ceramics: Art and Perception. Links to most of his online work are available at https://independent.academia.edu/TonyMerino/Papers. He can be reached at tdubis65@hotmail.com.

He is working currently working on a project 50 Women: A Celebration of Women's Contribution to Ceramics, an exhibition opening at the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, opening March 15th, 2016.