This exhibition brings together photographs by Martine Gutierrez, Sarah Maple, Wendy Red Star, Cara Romero, and Tokie Rome-Taylor that critique and combat essentializing representations of feminine identities in pop culture. Their photographs subvert dominant narratives that have been articulated in visual culture over time. From Renaissance portraiture to Disney princesses, from museum dioramas to store window displays, from children’s dolls to fashion mannequins, these sites and objects of consumerism play an important role in reinforcing gender construction. The artists’ inclusion of heirlooms, regalia, and toys carefully placed in meticulously constructed scenes highlights the role that objects and representation play in shaping our intersectional identities.  

Harnessing the medium of photography and drawing on a wide range of visual methods, Gutierrez, Maple, Red Star, Romero, and Rome-Taylor counter erasure and underrepresentation using pop culture references, portraiture, satire, the language of advertising, and reimagine connections between past and present. Taking an active stance, these artists create fresh, poignant, and powerful representations of themselves and their communities.