US Premiere of SD Holman’s Show, BUTCH: Not like the other girls
Press release by SD Holman
BUTCH, pressphoto by SD Holman
BUTCH: Not like the other girls
Photo-based exhibition by SDHolman at Eastworks, April 4 –May 4, 2014
Easthampton, MA: US premiere of SD Holman’s show:
BUTCH: Not like the other girls
The Mill Arts Project [the MAP gallery]
Eastworks 116 Pleasant Street suite 137, Easthampton, MA, USA
April 4 – May 4, 2014
Opening party April 4th 7pm – 9pm.
BUTCH is a photographic exploration of the liminal spaces occupied by female masculinity in contemporary communities. Curated by local resident of the valley over 20 years, Amiee Joy Ross, the exhibit is free and open to the public.
Holman delineates Butch as “an inclusive site of resistance to limitations on the way women, gender, and sexuality are still defined.” The images honor the beauty, power and diversity of women who transgress the gender binary, with subjects reflecting the many sizes, shapes, ethnicities, and styles of Butch. The transversal dialectic of female masculinity is celebrated here – unapologetic and undiluted.
SD Holman a photo-based artist
who has exhibited internationally at galleries including the Advocate Gallery (Los Angeles), the Soady-Campbell Gallery (New York), the San Francisco Public Library, The Helen Pitt International Gallery, Charles H. Scott, Exposure, and Fotobase Galleries (Vancouver). Holman defines as a non-commercial, photo-based artist, a participant observer employing subjective conceptual documentary practice. Holman’s approach to photography is conflicted and perverse, bringing gesture, hazard, and a painterly sensibility into this most technical of media. Hailed by Guy Warrington as “the best portrait photographer in Vancouver,” Holman is also Artistic Director of The Queer Arts Festival, a professional three-week, transdisciplinary arts festival in Vancouver, BC.
“This show displays to me such a large range of this word, this expression, Butch. I truly believe the meaning crosses dialogue into all sorts of people’s gender identities,” says debut curator Amiee Joy Ross. Known in the Pioneer Valley as The Bearded Lady, Ross has been in the area for over twenty years and has been a professional piercer in Northampton and Provincetown for sixteen years at Piercings by the Bearded Lady. Ross has sat for numerous artists, photographers, videographers and art classes including local painter Betsy Stone, Leonard Nimoy, and Del LaGrace Volcano. Declared a Gender Terrorist by Del LaGrace Volcano, Ross says, “My personal identification with the word butch as part of my gender expression, and my participation in this work, are just a small part of why I am bringing SD Holman’s Butch Project to the Valley.”
The MAP gallery is located on the first floor of the Eastworks building suite 137 at 116 Pleasant Street, Easthampton, MA. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 12-6pm. The Mill Arts Project (MAP), a collaboration between Easthampton City Arts+ and Eastworks, that offers a gallery space and to incubate new curatorial voices in a community context. While curators bring a vision and dedication, ECA+ and Eastworks assist with space and offer an intensive educational curatorial and organizational guide as well as assistance in project direction.
For more information on SD Holman and BUTCH: Not like the other girls, visit http://sdholman.com