The group show “Bad Girls” addresses that feministic groups have, throughout history, fought for their rights and have won many battles. But women are still seen as a secondary in some male driven societies. Women are still left to fight for independence and equality in work, religion and sexuality. The artists in “Bad Girls” are breaking with the traditional image of femininity and are instead defining a vision of women empowerment trough their own artistic expression.
Artists:
Jo Benink, Amersfoort born but now living in Amsterdam. Studied at the Gerrit Rietveld academy. Central in her work is the woman in a western society, in sociological as well as political themes. Her focus is on the various systems in which the human lives, acknowledges its truth and derives its identity from. She asks herself existential questions on religion, consumption, identity, beauty, life and death.
Melanie Bosboom, born in Zutphen but now residing in Brummen, graduated from Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Utrecht. In her work Bosboom masterfully brings this sculptural quality into her photographic series where she investigates identity and gender ambiguity. She creates installations in which personages can partake in role-play. Her characters have a quality which is both masculine and feminine.
Lois Cohen is born, raised and living in Amsterdam. Cohen is the youngest artist in the group show. Two elements that are always present in her work are the use of distinct colors and contradictions. Cohen’s work is as much the continuation as the reminiscence of childhood dressing-up parties with friends, but doesn’t only focus on that. Her images are naked, obscure, sexual and vividly arousing.
Karin Janssen, born in Utrecht and has studied at the Academy for Visual arts and Design in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. She lives and works in London since 2009. In her work Janssen plays with the fine line of when beauty becomes ugly, and especially when the repulsive becomes attractive. Hereby colliding the ideal images of the female with reality, dragging these ideal images into the absurd.
Isi Kunath, born in Mainsche (Germany) lives and works in Amsterdam. To Kunath, scale and dimension are flexible concepts; concepts with which she creates a world of its own. A poetic world is thus realized, in which daily stage-properties become images of a magnificent new reality in which utopia landscapes originate.
Josien Vogelaar, born in The Hague, now residing in Amsterdam. The characters in Vogelaar’s work are ranging from passionate victim to wild women, from sexual pleaser to sleeping youngster. The roles of men and women seem ambivalent and nearly exchangeable. Vogelaar is challenging her audience to think about new perspectives.