THE CLUB aims to not only support artists and their works, but also, to support and enhance the independent curators in the art world.
For the second "Opus" exhibition: "all the women. in me. are tired,” THE CLUB invites New York based independent curator Jasmine Wahi, who has curated works by international female artists.
The exhibition introduces eight artists from different generations, including the well-respected Marilyn Minter, an American visual artist, whose video work “My County ‘Tis of Thee’” recently premiered at Simon Lee Gallery in London last June, and Hiba Schahbaz, a young Pakistani artist whose work has attracted wide range of media and The Dean Collection (founded by Alicia Keys and her husband Swizz Beatz.) Both in their thirties, Wahi and THE CLUB director Yukako Yamashita, having Indian and Japanese cultural roots respectively started their art world careers in similar ways. Through the Western art world, the two sympathize through their mutual questioning of the stereotyping of sexuality and skin color in contemporary society, which has resulted in their collaboration for this show. Through the work of its eight female artists, this exhibition explores strategies and concrete examples of how women today can live their lives freely.
“The title of the exhibition “all the women. in me. are tired” is an expression of a chronic emotional and intellectual fatigue that seems to plague so many women in the world. It’s an exhaustion from historically and systematically being oppressed. But the exhibition takes that idea and stretches it- it plays with the words left unsaid, but still lingering after the final period. “all the women. in me. are tired. But we keep moving on-“ it’s an homage to the sentiment that we are more than the attempts to repress. These five images incorporate sensuality, sexuality, and fantasy as a combatant to this exhaustion. The female figure or figures in each of these works is self - possessed, proudly and defiantly owning herself. What is most exciting for me in these works is the diverse way in which they speak to a shared sentiment: whether it’s through a futuristic feminist aesthetic (Ganesh) or through a visually intimate, zoomed or focused, confrontation with the female body (Minter).” - Jasmine Wahi.
Jasmine Wahi
Jasmine Wahi is a curator, activist, TEDx speaker, and a founder + co-director of the non-profit Project for Empty Space. Her practice focuses on issues of female empowerment, complicating binary structures within social discourses, and exploring multipositional cultural identities through the lens of intersectional feminism. She received her Masters from New York University Institute of Fine Arts, where she focused on issues of intersectional narratives and authorship. In addition to running Project for Empty Space, and curating international shows independently, Ms. Wahi is also a professor at the School of Visual Arts, and a former board member of the South Asian Women's Creative Collective (SAWCC). Her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Vogue, Hyperallergic, ARTNews and more. Ms. Wahi lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her dog momo.