Riva Lehrer

Main Gallery

September 6 - October 12, 2024

The Monster Studio

Statement of Purpose
by Riva Lehrer

The Monster Studio will open on 9/6/24 and close 10/12/24, at Zolla Lieberman Gallery in Chicago. During its run I will perform a 6-week public portrait studio.

I make portraits in order to understand embodiment. There have been times in the past that my previous collaborators have described their identities as accumulations of wounds. They saw identity as carved by trauma. We made portraits that valorized the concept of the private, intimate self—rather than the public actor. However, this last decade has been one of acute communal trauma. I find myself needing to turn my practice inside-out. Rather than focusing on the ways in which we are formed by society, I am asking how we affect the world.

The purpose of The Monster Studio is to explore how my collaborators see themselves as actors, rather than as the acted upon.

Trying to take agency in the world can be a difficult, even disturbing experience. It can easily entail decisions that make one feel like a monster. That said, this is not necessarily negative. A monster be an agent of damage, certainly, but it can also be an avatar of ferocity and drive.

The Monster Studio is concerned with the struggle behind public action: anxieties, fears, and failures of performance. Our actions and words have an impact on those around us. What is intended to be positive can swerve; best intentions can harm.

My collaborators were chosen because they try to affect change. I will ask them to frame the difficult aspects of being change agents, and to draw those “monster selves” with me in public. This does NOT mean we’ll draw ourselves as classic monsters. No werewolves or vampires. A “monster” might not be figurative at all, but could be a dot, a color, a pile of torn paper, a rain of teeth.

Schedule of Participants

September 7 - 11am to 4pm
Steven Asma
Steven Asma is a Professor of Philosophy at Columbia College Chicago, where he is a Senior Fellow of the Research Group in Mind, Science, and Culture. He has authored ten books on topics ranging from science and religion to monsters and the human imagination. His work often explores the intersections of culture, art, and the human experience.

September 10 - 10am to 12:30pm
Lori Waxman
Lori Waxman is a Chicago-based art critic and historian, best known for her "60 wrd/min art critic" performance, where she writes live art reviews in real-time. She is also a lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, specializing in contemporary art and criticism.

September 13 - 12pm to 3:30pm
Jeffrey Cohen
Jeffrey J. Cohen is Dean of Humanities at Arizona State University and a scholar in medieval studies, monster theory, and environmental humanities. His notable works include Stone: An Ecology of the Inhuman and the collaborative books Earth and Noah's Arkive.

September 17 - 12pm to 3:30pm / September 19 - 12pm to 3:30pm
Esther Grimm
Esther’s career-long work in the arts encompasses museum and art education, administration, and philanthropy. She is a writer/editor, plays the flute, serves as an equine therapy volunteer, and is a coach for National Arts Strategies Leadership Coaching program. She is the Co-Chair of the American Friends of the Vienna Museum Board of Directors and is a member of Chicago’s Cultural Advisory Council.

September 18 - 12pm to 3:30pm / September 20 - 12pm to 3:30pm
Reveca Torres
Revecca Torres is a disability advocate and the founder of Backbones, a nonprofit organization that connects people with spinal cord injuries and promotes social inclusion. Her work focuses on empowering individuals with disabilities and raising awareness about accessibility issues.

September 24 thru 27 - 12pm to 3:30pm
Brandy Shillace
Brandy Schillace is a medical historian, author, TV personality, and editor, known for her acclaimed nonfiction works Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher and The Intermediaries, as well as the mystery novel The Framed Women of Ardmore House. Schillace, who is non-binary and autistic, continues to focus on issues of accessibility, social justice, and LGBTQ+ rights in her role as editor-in-chief of BMJ’s Medical Humanities Journal.

October 1 - 11am to 12pm / October 3 - 11am to 12pm
Michael Rakowitz
Michael Rakowitz is an Iraqi-American artist known for his conceptual art projects that address issues of displacement, cultural heritage, and the impact of war. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at major institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

October 4 - 12:30 to 4pm / October 5 - 1 to 4:30pm
Jill H. Casid and Anna Campbell
Jill H. Casid is a Professor of Visual Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, working across Art History and Gender & Women’s Studies. Casid explores queer, trans*feminist, and decolonial themes in their art, writing, and research, exhibiting internationally. They are a widely published author and have received numerous awards for their contributions to academia, including the Kellett Mid-Career Award.

Anna Campbell is an Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies with a focus on intersectional feminist theory and practice. In addition to her academic work, she is an accomplished sculpture maker, whose art, installations, and ephemera mine history and queer desire, repurposing otherwise stable signifiers of gender and heteronormativity. Through her teaching and creative practice, Anna fosters critical thinking and dialogue around gender, sexuality, and social justice.

Riva Lehrer is an artist, writer and curator who focuses on the socially challenged body. She is best known for representations of people whose physical embodiment, sexuality, or gender identity have long been stigmatized.

Her work has been exhibited in venues including the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian, the Hirshhorn Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art of San Diego, Yale University, the United Nations, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Arnot Museum, the DeCordova Museum, the Frye Museum and the Chicago Cultural Center.

Awards include the 2020 Ford Foundation Fellowship, 2017 3Arts MacDowell Fellowship, 2014 Carnegie Mellon Fellowship, 2006 Wynn Newhouse Foundation Grant, Illinois Arts Council Grants, and National Endowment for the Arts Grant.

Lehrer’s memoir, Golem Girl (October 2020, One World/ Penguin Random House) won the 2020 Barbellion Prize for Literature and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

She is represented by Regal Hoffman & Associates and by Zolla/Lieberman Gallery. Lehrer was a longtime faculty member at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently an instructor in Medical Humanities at Northwestern University.

Entrance wall:

Along the entrance wall of the gallery are the words “Riva Lehrer Monster Studio” in gray vinyl. Below, mounted in a grid are 10 metal clips that hold 9 identically sized pieces of paper. All are blank except for one in the bottom left, which has a pastel drawing of a storm of teeth. Dark grays and red form an ominous cloud at the top with graphic arrows in blue, and one in red, pointing down from the cloud to a ground in soft greens. Human teeth are attached to the page spaced out among the cloud, and falling to the ground, with a ring of teeth in the center of the cloud. Inside the ring of teeth is cut out, covered with a black mesh, and red pastel lining the hole.

Studio:

The missing paper is mounted onto an easel in a quaint art studio setup in the sw corner of the white walled gallery. An ornate rug in tans and browns frames the space, which holds the wood easel flanked by 2 metal carts, a black metal shelf holding various art supplies, a low oversized chair with red cushion and embroidered floral pillow, a full length mirror, and an antique metal typewriter table adorned with a scarf and ephemera from Riva’s home. 2 dozen sketches, mostly portraiture, with a few still lives, and one of a hyena, are tacked up salon style on one wall, with a black framed graphite drawing of a crouched naked woman, hands clasped, staring deeply at the viewer on the other.

Sky:

A black framed portrait of a nonbinary filipinx person with geometric and colorful tattoos, a rainbow scalemail headpiece they wear as their hair, a color blocked maximalist unitard of neon colors and black and white graphic patterns, and silver and teal boxing shoes. They are seated with one knee up, pliers in each hand, chainmailing a black and teal length of paper rings, with various individual rings scattered on the ground around them. The background holds various figures dancing, some on color blocked translucent fabric outlined in colorful embroidery, and some painted in a loose gestural way. You can see figures using various accessibility and mobility aids including a cane, walker, rollator, and power wheelchair, as well as masks. A white translucent paper with rings of more opaque fibers, and a dyed blue trim, form a curtain, separating Sky and a few embroidered figures from the dance party within. The curtain is being pulled back to show the full color and energy of the dance party, complete with a silver disco ball.

A plexiglass case holds a jacket and pants set made in a structural fabric that reads as a textured gray, but flashes an iridescent rainbow when light hits it. and a burnout velvet fabric in a deep teal. The overall design is geometric and exaggerated, with high filipina butterfly sleeves done in angles instead of a curve, jacket tails, and a pointed silhouette on pants with decorative stitching in teal. Along the back of the jacket is a gold embroidery spine curved in the shape of Riva’s spine.

Zoom:

A black framed extra long landscape piece with 3 figures in 3 zoom windows, surrounded by black paper silhouettes of adults, children, and pets living everyday life, and partially colored pencil drawings of figures in medical settings, doctors and patients, wearing masks. The zoom windows are lined with text, transcribed from the full zoom meeting. The left window holds a black and white illustration of a woman smiling softly with flowing wavy hair, and a small patterned button up. Behind her is a lived-in bedroom and a child peering into the zoom meeting. The center window holds a woman in black and white, with long, full wavy hair in a dark to light ombre, sitting by a window rendered in full color, of a city street sunset. You can see the reflection of the computer screen in the window, along with her reflection, which pictures her in a surgical mask. The right window holds a color illustration of Riva, with short white and orange-pink hair and a gray shirt, with hand held at her chin listening. Behind her is a bedroom with a red shade lamp, a yellow framed painting of black and white birds, and a shelf holding linens.

Stephanie:

A black framed portrait of a statuesque woman, rendered in charcoal, in a white sleeveless dress, shoulder length light hair whipping in the wind, and hands held out in an almost conjuring position. Above her are storm clouds of text, shaded with paint, and lines of rain in gray thread. Surrounding her are medical and personal documents flying in the storm, some edging off the canvas, and some trailing gold thread. Gold thread wraps around her arms and hands, being pulled by wind, into a net adorned with beads and gems, that captures most of the documents.

Riva/Katherine:

A black framed portrait of Riva and her partner lying naked, besides Riva’s gray and black underwear, on an unrendered bed. Riva, with short white and orange-pink hair, is laying on top of her partner, with short silver hair, Riva’s head on her chest, their hands clasped together, both looking softly at the viewer. Riva’s chunky silver bracelets, silver rimmed glasses, and a colorfully embroidered pillow under Riva’s partner’s head are the only other elements in the piece.

Specimen jar:

A wood framed portrait of a woman with a somber look, sitting in front of a cream colored wall with white wainscoting, and a gray fringed tapestry draped on the wall. She has short white hair, small gold rimmed round glasses, a short sleeved red velvet dress, black flats, and an ornate blue-grey shawl wrapped around her arms that drapes down her dress. She has a limb difference with 4 fingers on one hand and 2 on the other, and is holding a rectangular green glass jar containing an embalmed fetus inside.

Buffy:

A series of 5 paintings of characters from the tv show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with white matte board. Angel is wearing a dark blue overcoat and suit, with a yellow sword and ornate cross in red. The Gentleman has a green tone to his skin, wearing a black suit, scalpel and medical bag in hand, with a downpour behind him and on the ground a small glass jar with a heart. Buffy has her hair up, red overcoat on, black shirt and pants, and her scythe and hung munga weapon in hand. Colorful oversized flowers coming from a blue glass jar surround her. Willow kneels on the ground with a stake in hand, wearing a purple butterly and flower sweater, red skirt, and purple leggings. She’s in a yellow circle of light with birds and beasts surrounding her in the shadows. Spike, holding a stake and dagger, falls through a colorfully rendered cosmos, in full black outfit, including gloves and overcoat, except for a bright red button up.

Animals:

A series of 6 pencil drawings, with gray matte board. A crow in the clouds flying between syringes pointing toward them. A tiger climbing out of a river bed surrounded by crutches. A wolf plods through the snow dragging oxygen tanks, with the tubes wrapped around its mouth, and an oxygen mask hanging down. A Sifaka lemur runs past white hospital gowns hung in vines like curtains. A raccoon in a tree is surrounded by IV fluid bags and their tubes. A gray fox stands in the grass next to a tree where an X-ray film of a rabbit hangs.