Defy/Define at Transformer art gallery tackles issues of identity
Transformer's latest exhibit highlights artists exploring racial, sexual and cultural identity
“As an ally and a sympathetic human with friends of all different racial, sexual and national identities, I feel anger and frustration at people being profiled…because of who they are or how they identify,” says Victoria Reis, artistic director of the intimate Transformer Art Gallery in Logan Circle. “Given everything that’s been happening in our world for the last year — especially all the violence based on racism and sexual identity and cultural identity — we felt it was really important to highlight artists who are both defying stereotypes and defining themselves in their own way around issues of identity.”
Enter Defy/Define, a new exhibit at Transformer, showing nine emerging visual artists working in photography, video and performance art, including Alexandra “Rex” Delakaran, Jo Ann Block, Nakeya Brown, Ebtisam Abdulaziz and Eli Barak. Reis hopes the show will foster “a more positive conversation.”
Reis co-founded Transformer to provide visual artists a more consistent platform for exposure. Her passion for “identity art” began during the culture wars 25 years ago, when she worked for a small association that supported LGBT artists such as Karen Finley and Tim Miller, “artists were really starting a conversation around identity-based work, particularly of sexual identity.”
As for the artists represented in Defy/Define, Reis says, “All have something important to say, and will be communicating that through really compelling visual means.”
Defy/Define runs to Oct 22 at Transformer, 1404 P St. NW. Call 202-483-1102 or visit transformerdc.org.
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