January 2022 / Momentous Gesture

Momentous Gesture

Meghann Riepenhoff, Mary Ann Peters, Sebastián Calfuqueo, Dani Tirrell, and Serrah Russell

Curated by Rafael Soldi / Strange Fire Collective

January 06 – 29, 202
Opening Reception / Thursday, January 06, 5–8pm

Winter/Covid-19 Gallery Hours:
Friday–Sunday, 11am–4pm

Momentous Gesture—curated by the Strange Fire Collective—is an exhibition of work by women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ artists whose work embraces gesture while attempting to move the needle on intersectional socio-political issues, reminding us that beauty can be found in a rigorous social conceptual framework.

Whether it is through corporeal gesture—dance, ritual, durational performance—or through formal gesture in paint, collage, and collaborative human-nature printmaking, these artists weaponize beauty to bring focus to important questions about the world around us.

Meghann Riepenhoff addresses climate change by making work in collaboration with endangered bodies of water. Mary Ann Peters’ paintings are propelled by gesture, yet at the core is a deep look at issues of shelter, migration, and the refugee crisis. Serrah Russell’s gestural collages become a visceral dictionary for decoding the isolation caused by repeating smoke events caused by forest fires. dani tirrell is a queer, black, trans spectrum movement artist. The Bluest Feelings is an installation using movement, photography and words to address dani's views on how the femme centered body is gestured to be oppressed, harmed and controlled. Hailing from Chile, indigenous Mapuche non-binary artist Sebastián Calfuqueo’s work appeals to their cultural inheritance in order to propose a critical reflection on the social, cultural and political status of the Mapuche subject in the contemporary Chilean society and Latin America.

This exhibition is made possible by a smART Ventures grant from the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture.