The Let Down Reflex
January 30 - March 12, 2016

And Everything Else, 2015 Image: copyright and courtesy of Melissa Smedley & Home Affairs

And Everything Else, 2015
Image: copyright and courtesy of Melissa Smedley & Home Affairs

Opening Reception: Saturday, January 30, 2 - 4 pm
At EFA Project Space, 323 W. 39th St, 2nd floor

Artists: Dillon de Give, Home Affairs (Arzu Ozkal, Claudia Costa Pederson & Nanette Yannuzzi), Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn, Leisure (Meredith Carruthers & Susannah Wesley), Lise Haller Baggesen, LoVid, Shane Aslan Selzer

Curated by: Amber Berson and Juliana Driever

The Let Down Reflex is an exhibition that attempts to recognize the complexities of parenting in the art world, and asks if a better alternative for families can exist. Calling out a slippage in today’s feminist art world, the curators summon a group of artist-parents to contribute to a springboard for re-imagining an art world where “Mom” is not a demeaning characterization, where childcare is factored in for participating artists at art spaces, and where artists aren’t forced to choose between home and work because of a lack of parental leave. The “let down reflex,” a term referencing the involuntary reflex that causes nursing mothers to produce breast milk, takes on a double meaning in this exhibition, referring here to the reflexive tendency of letting down parents, and particularly mothers, within the flawed labor system of the art world.

PRESS RELEASE

CURATORIAL STATEMENT

This presentation is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council for the Arts' Electronic Media and Film Presentation Funds grant program, administered by The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes and Women and Performance: a journal of feminist theory.

RELATED EVENTS

Sat, Jan 30, 2 - 4 pm: Opening Reception. Families and children are encouraged to attend.

For press inquiries, please contact Meghana Karnik, EFA Project Space Program Manager at meghana@efanyc.org or 212-563-5855 x229.