Artemizia Foundation’s Gallery 818, Bisbee
September 30, 2023 - December 10, 2023
Juxtapoz Magazine | September 26, 2023 | in Painting
In her one women exhibition at Artemizia Foundation’s Gallery 818, Tracy Brown faces the anxiety and danger of objectification found within our visual culture and its reinforcement of a woman’s place of submission in our world. She states, “These repetitive images and messages continue to depict women as objects of desire and consumption rather than portraying them as the strong, creative, intelligent forces capable of greatness that they truly are.”
Brown brings to attention the absurdity of reducing a human being to a sex object. She says that when society objectifies women, it dehumanizes them. This dehumanization makes it difficult to see women as whole beings and makes it acceptable to dismiss, degrade and commit acts of violence on them. Her work challenges the system that implicitly tells women to sit silent and pretty on the sidelines while watching their male counterparts excel and be rewarded for their achievements and "greatness."
Through her exhibition, Object of Desire, Brown obsessively confronts these issues the only way she knows how: through sarcasm, irony and wit. Before going through recovery from an eating disorder of nearly two decades, Brown used her study of feminism and painting to process her anger, shame, and grief. It was on that journey that she began to feel empowered to change her life and mindset. She describes her artwork as a purge and release of the toxic messages and images women are faced with on a daily basis. Through her dark and often humorous feminist imagery, Brown makes it easier for people to engage in conversations that can otherwise be difficult to approach.