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Genevieve Gaignard
Genevieve Gaignard
This Is America: The Unsettling Contradictions in American Identity
February 11, 2022 – May 15, 2022
- Press Preview
- February 11, 2022 at 10:00 am
The COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement, along with the insurrection of the Capital on January 6, 2021, have affected the way Americans relate to and communicate with one another.
Genevieve Gaignard’s work addresses the inequities of racial perceptions. At first deceptive, cozy collages and heavily nostalgic-filled installation of domestic interiors and photographic portraiture draw the viewer in, belying her willingness to confront the sensitive issues of race, stereotypes, beauty standards, consumption, and identity.
Gaignard picks up the deep theme of identity again in her photographs which invite the viewer to look beyond the surface and consider who the subject might really be. She strives to imbue these photographs with greater significance, inserting subtle references to the media and politics, often with a sarcastic edge.
Bio
Genevieve Gaignard
Genevieve Gaignard is a Los Angeles-based, multidisciplinary artist whose body of work incorporates installation, sculpture, collage, and photographic self-portraiture to explore race, femininity, and class. As a biracial woman in America, Gaignard investigates the aesthetic and cultural divide between Black and White, a chasm as palpable as it is “invisible”. She interrogates notions of “passing” by positioning her own female body as the chief site of exploration - challenging viewers to navigate the powers and anxieties of intersectional identity. Gaignard’s work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions including: The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, D.C.; Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, AR; The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; California African American Museum, CA; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, MA; and Prospect.4, LA. Gaignard received her BFA in Photography from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and her MFA in Photography from Yale University.