Art at the X: Celebrating Women

Oct 16, 2019

A View of Women Through the Artist's Gaze

For 21 days this summer, 57 artworks depicting the unique and universal experiences of women were prominently displayed in the Xavier University Art Gallery. Though silent in their spaces on the gallery walls and tables, their messages loudly proclaimed the enduring presence and impact of women on the human experience—as a 19th-century midwife, as women who carry water in jugs, as part of the slave trade, as a Shawnee matriarch.

“Art at the X: Celebrating Women” was the 10^th Art at the X exhibit in the last 12 years. Presented in conjunction with Xavier’s 50^th anniversary celebration of the year women were admitted as traditional day students, this year’s exhibition was designed to have a lasting impact by inviting submissions from which 10 pieces were purchased for inclusion in the University’s permanent art collection.

The exhibit also marks nearly 40 years since Xavier acquired Edgecliff College in 1980 and its Department of Art became part of the College of Arts and Sciences' undergraduate programs.

The national juried exhibition attracted 223 entries by 75 artists from around the U.S. and Canada, including Xavier alumni, faculty and students, as well as local artists. Of those, 57 entries were selected for the exhibit at the Xavier Art Gallery from Aug. 29 through Sept. 20.

The 10 artworks chosen for Xavier’s collection were paid for by a grant from the Women of Excellence Giving Circle and with funds from President Michael Graham, S.J., and Janice Walker, chief diversity and inclusion officer.

“The goal was to visually create a stronger presence for women on campus, and what is phenomenal is that all the purchased works were by women artists and that reflects the women’s gaze at their own lives and values, whereas so much imagery of women in society and history has been from the male gaze, an often objectifying gaze,” said Suzanne Chouteau, professor and chair of the Department of Art. 

“That completely creates a full circle around the goal of the exhibition. What it really reflects is that Xavier fosters an environment of inclusion and celebrating difference, and these works do that in both subject and media.” 

The works selected for the exhibit reflect that diversity by including a variety of media from photography and printmaking to paint, sculpture and fabric. Chouteau’s wood-print of her great-great grandmother, a Shawnee matriarch, titled “Way of Love,” was part of the exhibit, as was a ceramic piece by professor Marsha Karagheusian, titled “The Sun Rose…Her People Prevailed.” 

And in recognition of Xavier’s 50^th anniversary celebration of women, art gallery Director Kitty Uetz created “50 Murmurrations,” a hand-woven bamboo hanging cloth of bands representing each of the last 50 years. It was purchased for the permanent collection. 

Juror Cynthia Amnéus, a Xavier grad who is chief curator at the Cincinnati Art Museum, selected the 57 artworks for the exhibit. She was joined by Anne Ernst, Executive Director of Xavier’s Women of Excellence, and Rachel Chrastil, PhD, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, in selecting the 10 works for the University’s permanent collection.

In her Juror’s Statement for the exhibit, Amnéus reflected on the historic struggles for women in America, such as the right to vote and the need to keep advocating for full inclusion.

“I am proud to be a Woman of Xavier and that I have been able to play a small part in putting before the public images of, by and for women that speak to our past, present and future,” she said. “I hope that as a gender, we continue to fight, march, raise our voices, vote and express ourselves in the best way we know how, to expand our rights and the rights of women, and other marginalized groups, around the world.”

The 10 purchased artworks, all by women artists, convey a variety of images of women. Among them:

• “The Water Carrier,” (right) an acrylic painting by Debra Archibald of Toronto, Ontario, that depicts an African woman balancing a large round water orb on her head.
• “Resplendence #4-Carnival” (above right) by Cynthia Sturdevant, Cincinnati, cotton embroidery floss, fabric, beads.
• “Persephone’s Marriage,” an engraving by Victoria Goro-Rapoport of Kearney, Neb., that depicts the goddess being forcefully pulled into the underworld by the god Hades.
• “Knot,” a photograph (above left) by Tina Gutierrez of Cincinnati, that addresses the issue of race using brown-skinned arms embracing a white-skinned torso.
• “Woman,” a marble sculpture (below) by Shoshana of Longwood, Fla., of a female face rushing forward with her long hair streaming behind in seemingly perpetual motion.
  
  

Reflecting on the variety of subjects addressed by the art, Amneus said, “I can only hope that they will inspire the next generation of Xavier students, both female and male, to focus on, discuss and further women’s rights.”

Chouteau said the works will be on permanent display on campus, but the location has not yet been determined.

Header Image: "Cargo II" by Douglas Balentine, Charleston, S.C., oil on linen

By France Sloat, Office of Marketing and Communications

View a video by elijah bedel, Class of 2018, of the opening reception on thursday, aug. 29.