Curated by Luiza Testa at ApexArt
January 15 – March 12, 2022
Featuring Work By:
Benedita Arcoverde – Santarosa Barreto – June Canedo de Souza – Vitória Cribb – Micaela Cyrino – Camilla D’Anunziata – Lenora de Barros – Juliana Manara – Brenda Nicole – Arissana Pataxó – Milena Paulina – Fernanda Sternieri
The fantasy that Brazil’s territories and women are prime for exploitation has been promoted from the moment of colonization, through 20th-century tourism, even to political speeches of today. The result has cemented a stereotype that incites violence against and sexualization of Brazilian women—both at home, and around the world; today, Brazil has one of the highest rates of murder and rape of women and trans people, and in places like London, 80% of Brazilian women fall victim to domestic violence.
The exhibition Oh, I Love Brazilian Women! presents works by twelve artists who critique this image of eroticized beauty and its dangerous outcomes. Examining the colonial and biological origins of harmful stereotypes that disproportionately affect Black and Indigenous women, and how such tropes are reinforced through Brazil’s national narrative of “racial democratization,” the works on view illustrate the psychological and physical toll of incessant objectification and dehumanization.
Through contemporary art, photography, interventions, and video-performances, selected works delve into the inequalities that women bear in an attempt to transform collective pain into a reassertion of identity and collective liberation.
Luiza Testa (b. 1987), is a translator and researcher from São Paulo, Brazil. She holds a B.A. in Brazilian and French Literature and Languages from the University of São Paulo (USP) and an M.A. in Critical Theory and the Arts from the School of Visual Arts, in New York. Her focus is on questions of gender, sexuality, and ethnicity and their interactions in society.
apexart’s program supporters past and present include the Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, the Kettering Family Foundation, the Buhl Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Spencer Brownstone, the Kenneth A. Cowin Foundation, Epstein Teicher Philanthropies, The Greenwich Collection Ltd., William Talbott Hillman Foundation/Affirmation Arts Fund, the Fifth Floor Foundation, the Consulate General of Israel in New York, The Puffin Foundation, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, public funds from Creative Engagement, supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and administered by LMCC, funds from NYSCA Electronic Media/Film in Partnership with Wave Farm: Media Arts Assistance Fund, with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, as well as the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
