In Your Face: Barbara DeGenevieve, Artist and Educator

This fall, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) will exhibit the first major retrospective of artist Barbara DeGenevieve at SAIC Galleries and host a symposium to give context to her work. In Your Face: Barbara DeGenevieve, Artist & Educator, curated by SAIC Associate Professor Alan Labb with support from Professor Lisa Wainwright, will feature a wide array of DeGenevieve’s surviving video, photography, and installation pieces. It will run from September 13 to December 7.

DeGenevieve (1947–2014) embraced the label “transgressive artist” and fearlessly made work focused on the body that explored sexuality, gender, pornography, censorship, race, class, and representation. Her work often challenged conventional gallery etiquette, resulting in her being overlooked by mainstream art venues. Despite this, her intellectual rigor and artistic vision left a profound impact on the field, challenging norms, provoking critical inquiry, and expanding the boundaries of photographic discourse.

On September 14, SAIC will host a related day-long symposium, In Your Face: A Symposium on Transgressive Pleasure, in the SAIC Ballroom at 112 South Michigan Avenue beginning at 10am. The event will feature a keynote address by David Getsy, Eleanor Shea, professor of Art History at the University of Virginia, and an introduction by SAIC Associate Professor Alan Labb. The symposium will include three panels moderated by SAIC faculty members focusing on key themes of radical pedagogy, interclass contact, and the erotics of art. 

Pedagophilia
Moderator: Adam Greteman / Panelists: Sean Fader, Jennifer Reeder, Oli Rodriguez, Amber Hawk Swanson. Returning to scenes of being taught by DeGenevieve, this panel explores the pleasurable and painful afterlife of pedagogical practices that pushed boundaries then and now.

Celebrating the Erotics of Art: Theory and Practice
Moderator: Jeremy Biles / Panelists: Ron Athey, Amina Ross, Juliana Huxtable, and John Neff. Taking cues from DeGenevieve’s practice and life, the conversation will proceed as an experiment in which the participating panelists—artists whose work engages eroticism in diverse ways—will be prompted to reflect on the place of eros and erotic desire in their work and in their practices of life.

Panhandler Series and Interclass Contact
Moderator: Kirin Wachter-Grene / Panelists: Keren Moscovitch, Clifford Owens, Brontez Purnell, Avgi Saketopoulou. Panelists will discuss the ethics of DeGenevieve’s most controversial work, The Panhandler Project, in relation to matters of consent (and coerced consent); power; artistic risk; race and gender; and interclass contact (practices of relation between and across class boundaries).

In Your Face: Barbara DeGenevieve, Artist & Educator will also address the theme of censorship in the arts, featuring works by other significant artists of DeGenevieve’s generation who faced similar challenges. The following events will also accompany the exhibition:

Visiting Artists Program: Samuel Delany Virtual Lecture: September 10, 6–7:30pm / Exhibition public reception: Friday, September 13, 5–7pm, SAIC Galleries / Student exhibition of works responding to DeGenevieve’s assignment prompts, opens November 8, with a public reception on November 9, SAIC Galleries. / Curator rours with Alan Labb and Lisa Wainwright: Saturday, October 19, 3pm & Wednesday, November 13, 5pm, SAIC Galleries.

SAIC Galleries, located at 33 East Washington Street, is free and open to the public Monday through Saturday, 11am to 6pm. A state-issued ID is required for entry. Visit here to learn more. This exhibition features contemporary art with adult content and is intended for mature audiences.