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Planning a day trip to Venice? Be sure to add this exhibit to your itinerary before it ends!
“Tomboys” at the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) features a collection of over twenty mixed media oil paintings by Christina Schlesinger that examines the intersections between gender, identity, fashion, sex, and representation.
Schlesinger’s body of work explores self-portraiture, feminist nudes, and lesbian sex. It fills a void of lesbian imagery in art and revisits a time in the artist’s life where she felt empowered and brave. Schlesinger started at Cal Arts in the Feminist Studio Workshop and left to paint murals across Los Angeles.
Feminism and activism have been core to Schlesinger’s work since she co-founded the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) in 1976. She has received public art commissions and been a part of gallery exhibitions in California, New York, Massachusetts, Colorado and New Hampshire. Her activism extends to her involvement with the Guerrilla Girls where she is known as Romaine Brooks. Visit www.christinaschlesinger.com for more information about the artist.
SPARC has provided arts programming in Los Angeles communities since 1976. Its mission is to “empower local communities by producing and preserving public artworks that are developed in collaboration with residents; and to facilitate innovative arts programs that encourage audiences to imagine a more just and equitable world.”
The “Tomboys” exhibit will be on view in SPARC’s Durón Gallery until August 16. This is event is free and open to the public. Free parking is available in two lots next to the SPARC building.
Learn more at www.SPARCinLA.org/durongallery.