*Opening reception January 7, 2023 5pm - 7pm

Eleanor Harwood Gallery is delighted to present Lee Materazzi’s second solo exhibition with the gallery.

Materazzi’s work refutes any hierarchy between the labor of art and the labor of domestic care, and alludes to a sense of self-contained desire— complete without the need to be reciprocated. In her portraits, Materazzi objectifies not just her body, but the precarity of its context. Nipples, fingers, and other ambiguous parts are creased, pulled out, pushed through, held close, and seen grasping through cardboard orifices. These physical circumstances, while tenuous, pronounce a marked sense of autonomy; the artist got herself into this predicament, red paint and all. She will get herself out, too.

Historically, a critical distinction has been made between nudity and nakedness. John Berger infamously wrote, “Nakedness reveals itself. Nudity is placed on display,” suggesting that the role held by images of [namely, women’s] bodies was defined by the viewer, not the subject. The works in Nipples Pulled Through, reject this dichotomy— revealing and concealing; inviting and refusing sexualization like the precise drapery of a roman figure— at once, erotic and avoidant.

This duality pervades self-made nude photographs. With the simultaneity of self-edification and self-deprecation, Materazzi’s work dissects the body into a sum of its parts. It’s made into material, and yet, it still asks to be seen.

Eleanor Harwood Gallery