Everyone lives a gendered experience. This is a neutral statement. When I wrote the call for entries for this exhibition I was very intentional with the language I used. As I wrote there- our personal relationships to gender and identity are unique to every individual. I was conscious of the fact that my own language could be a limiting factor to the exhibition, and strived to avoid curating a show that only spoke to my experiences. In conversations I had about the exhibition a common thread emerged that often, someone felt their work “didn’t count”. There was this idea that simply the base concept of gender was a limited experience.…

Meganity Wattles – they/him The attached works (Digital Assignments) explores the relationships of the body experience and identity through a nonbinary/genderqueer lens. I wish to share that there is an option that isn’t male or female, because that concept was revolutionary for me. External genitalia is from where we are given our birth genders and by remixing the forms I attempt to recontextualize this (occasionally emotionally violent) assignment into something transformed. I take aspects of the binary genders (female and male, vulva and phallus, pink and blue) and combine them into new configurations. I choose ceramics as my medium due to its inherent reference to the body and to the…

Julian Uhlman – they/him The mediums I enjoy are collage and painting, which this piece combines. This work, entitled “BINARIES,” is a text-based piece using resolute language and the recognizable pink-blue color combination to condemn the concept of binary. Julian Uhlman is a sophomore creative writing major from southeast Pennsylvania. They are interested in combining their passion for written work and poetry with the visual medium.

Royce Soble – they/them I have been working on paper since 2016. I mix mediums of high flow acrylics, watercolor pencils, graphite, and archival gel pens. Instead of brushes, I mix paints by spraying water on the papers. Then, I press papers together or drag paints with the tips of sharpened pencils. Exploration of what I think how people, who are queer, appear and live on the gender spectrum. There is not one way trans folx present themselves. As I am continuing to step into my own transness, I will continue to explore ideas on paper. oyce Soble is a Native Atlanta who is a photographer and working artist over…

Salvi – he/they Salvi’s art serves as a map that he creates to aid in the exploration of his own mind. In his work you’ll find themes of pain and conflict made into something beautiful through his curiosity. Salvador considers himself to be a creator of worlds hoping that, in pursuit of a place where he can feel comfortable, he can simultaneously provide a sense of community for other people who see the world differently. Salvador Iglesias is an interdisciplinary artist, with a focus in digital art and mixed media, based in Atlanta, GA. Salvi was raised in the Dominican Republic and immigrated to the United States when he was…

Abigail Ranic – they/he/she Much of my work is addressing “non traditional” beauty standards and what makes bodies unique in their own way. I am a printmaking student at Georgia State, and I use mostly monoprinting and reductive techniques to produce art that is moody and reflective. “In Between Bodies” is a diptych piece I created; a commentary on my own gender identity as a non-binary person. Showing two cis gendered people with myself (not pictured) somewhere in between. “Self Reflection in Black” is just that, a reflection, or examination of myself and my own body. I made the abstracted version of myself intentionally androgynous with a pronounced adam’s apple…

Sara Murphy – she/her In ‘Performance Theory,” ink drawing, acrylic and watercolor painting, monoprints, and resin on panel combine to create a multilayered image that attempts to express some of the vibrant, pulsing frustration that seems to come hand in hand with attempting to embody (or at least not insult) a societally acceptable framework of given gender expectations. The stenciled background, inspired by antique wallpapers, is a symbol of societal homemaking expectations, “pretty” faces trapped within the patriarchal and puritanical constraints of society’s subconscious. The birdcage, calling out a loss of freedom, is paired with lilies and lavender, two flowers representing purity, innocence, femininity, and –particularly relevant of late —…

Pia Muhihu – they/them My Artistic practice begins one of two ways: first being a new canvas or paints to try out and second being an idea that rolls its way into my life sometimes overnight other times months long. These are examples of both. The first piece titled in my room was set and created purely as work that queer people like me would hang in their most precious of spaces. Using subtle markers in the short nails and the bits of masculine clothing peaking through I felt it was ideal for other AFAB nonbinary masc folks to feel seen and represented. The Second piece titled Growth Mangifera indica,…

Kate Kosek – she/her My fiber sculptures playfully scrutinize and critique the gendered hierarchies inherent within art, craft, and design. I use abstract and representative forms to disrupt the ways we perceive an idea or an object’s function. Since the concept of craft was invented in relation to industrialization, I fluctuate between hand and machine processes to traverse the boundaries created by uncooperative social structures. No material is off limits as I analyze the absurdity in how we constantly categorize types of work based on the binary. As bodily autonomy is threatened and Western society continues to gender and assign values to physical and emotional labor, my visual language challenges…

Emma Ming Kayhart – she/her I am a cis woman who took Accutane, the acne control medication, for 6 months during 2019. When I took the medicine, the language/verbiage for the instructions and information was very gendered. There were tons of warnings for *female* patients who can get pregnant and few to no warnings for *male* patients. This exclusionary language has now been updated to *patients* who can/cannot get pregnant. Accutane works great for those with non-hormonal acne issues and is a category-X prescription. It can cause serious birth defects, so much so that it is a federally-regulated program. Those who can get pregnant have to be on two forms…

Edie Irwin – they/he/she Before creating this piece, I had some words cut out of an article about memory and memory loss, which I intended to use in a piece reflecting on myself and growing up. I used some of those words (“even if she does not recognize herself”) in the upper half of the work, in conjunction with words found in an article about a woman whose photography investigates masculinity, to talk about how for me femininity and being a woman felt like a role I was playing, albeit not particularly well. In the middle and lower half, I used words from the same photography article to show the…

Deborah Hutchinson – she/her Reflecting on my prior practices, forms related to concealment and contraction, and were repeatedly emerging. These forms evolved through both subliminal attractions and manipulation of the materials. This particular form emerged as both a release from a disconcerted sense of self regarding my lesbianism and an attraction to the combining of these materials

Alyssa Hood – she/her My work explores my identity and relationship to image making as it has been greatly influenced by my formative years as a member of a controlled organized religion. Through my research I examine the influence of religious indoctrination of images throughout childhood and early adulthood, and how imagery has conflicted with my own vision and experience of the spectacular. The forbidden influences of pop culture, sex shop windows, prohibited images, and films manifest themselves into my vision, and raised questioned against the patriarchal authority. The process of deprogramming my own vision is examined in my painting process of demolition and rearrangement of sanctioned religious imagery composed…

GETSAY – they/them GETSAY is a Queer and non-binary Conceptual Artist, Activist, and Curator. They currently reside in Atlanta, Georgia, where they are a Studio Art: Focus in Photography MFA Candidate at Georgia State University (graduating 2023) and a Teaching Assistant of Photography and Studio Art. Their work stems from ideas that expand oneself through a relatable and textual lens—ultimately exploring the liminal space between perception and reality to create work that translates—bringing those ideas and knowledge to the surface and becoming transferable across cultures and society. GETSAY has exhibited and performed internationally, with recent performances and solo exhibitions at the Burren College of Art and Design, Ct. Claire Ireland…

Mitch Galiano – any/all The Act of Acceptance is a self-portrait, which seems serene or even contemplative on a surface level. Those who know what to look for, however, will see that I am wearing a binder and that this piece is actually an homage to my genderfluid identity. This is the reason I chose to add a sash to slightly cover it up; it was important for me to have it as a secret with the knowing viewer. At the time of making this piece, I was still coming to terms with my identity, which is why it is more secretive than it would have been had I made…

August Fisk – he/him This piece takes a stereotypical “girl’s toy” and uses text to address the audience and make them consider a different viewpoint of the trans perspective. It uses both the front and the back of the toy box to address the viewer. This piece also uses the toy itself, in an altered state, to also challenge the viewer as paired with the text. I make art, often through collage, that focuses on the queer and small town identity.

Jordan Benator – she/her My interest as a composer is in exploring creative ways for performers to interact with technology. Computers are powerful performance tools capable of incredible enhancement to live music, but a lot of works that take advantage of them only do so to add prerecorded backing tracks to their performances. This allows composers and arrangers to include sounds in their work that would be impractical, impossible, or inappropriate to be produced by a human musician, but it forces the performer to play in sync with a fixed piece of media assembled in advance, taking away agency and freedom of expression from the human performer. I am more interested…

Layla Ali Amar she/they I talk to myself through my art. I have difficulty understanding how I feel, so my art is a map allowing me to explore my emotions safely. I believe we live in a state of instantaneous repetition. Each version of myself is always alive in a moment of singularity. My art is a pathway that reaches through these isolated frames and creates a communicative vessel. My intense layering and movement of color is a reach into the subconscious and rarely involves an active assertion of myself. I bring back a magical, colorful sense of self by reaching into these intangible states. Layla Amar (b.1998) is a…