Anderson Gallery: Summer Exhibitions May 28, 2010

Two exhibitions that consider the physical, social, and cultural aspects of identity will be on view
this summer at the Anderson Gallery, located at 907½ West Franklin Street on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University. On Friday, May 28, from 6-8 pm, the public is invited to attend the opening of Social Skin, an exhibition organized by graduate students in the VCU Museum Studies program, and Photographs by Lalla Essaydi: L’Écriture
Feminine / Le Corps Feminin, which features recent work by this Moroccan-born New York-based artist.

Social Skin explores the intricacies of both the body’s physicality and the ways in which the social self uses the physical body to craft individuality. Wide-ranging in terms of culture, time period, and subject matter, artworks and artifacts on loan from private and public
collections make up the exhibition. It features work by such well-known contemporary artists as Kara Walker, Hank Willis Thomas, Gillian Wearing, Nan Goldin, Douglas Gordon, Raymond Pettibon, and Wendy Ewald, and by VCU faculty Sonya Clark, Susie Ganch, Sonali
Gulati, and Elizabeth King. The exhibition also includes historic and ethnographic objects from VCU Special Collections, the Valentine Richmond History Center, the Wilton House, and James Madison University, as well as selections from the Anderson Gallery’s permanent
collection.
This unusual combination of art and artifact raised com-
plex questions for the curators during the development of the project. To what extent does the physical define the social self? In what ways can the body interrupt, deny, or amplify the social individual? When is the social self privileged over the physical self? Provocative questions such as these reflect the complementary yet paradoxical nature of our social skin.
Social Skin is the third in a biennial series of exhibitions undertaken by students in the Museum Studies graduate program,VCU Department of Art History. Through collaborative projects and internships, as well as classroom learning, the program prepares students for the museum profession with a foundation of critical awareness and practicalknowledge. For more information, visit www.vcu.edu/arts/arthistory/dept/graduate/MA-museum.shtml.

Official Website: http://www.vcu.edu/arts/gallery/