“Stop trying to fit in that old corset”, Gaby Berglund Cardenas, detail of corset installation, 2013

“Our culture’s objectification of the female body disempowers women and limits our economic, political and professional influence. Gendered embodiment has always been fluid and plastic. Since the emergence of digital technology in the 1990s, there has been a constant rise in body anxiety among girls and women. When bombarded by the media with messages for us to feel defective unless we fix ourselves, we internalize it and become vulnerable, risking turning our bodies and minds into civil war zones. We modify, reshape, cover, and uncover, as fits the media ideal, through fashion corsets, diets, exercise and cosmetic surgery. We adorn ourselves with piercings and tattoos, bind, confine, and refine our contours; and learn to move in an out of step with societal expectations. Women’s bodies are scrutinized not only in the arts, advertising and pornography but also within politics. Bodies are coerced, bought and sold through prostitution, or reduced to property, objects of value. Women’s right to control their bodies becomes tangible in the movement for reproductive rights and in women’s health issues. It should give us a glimmer of hope that more women are rising to positions of power in the media. More women should also be engaged in politics. As real, authentic women have the power to make decisions, they also have the power to portray themselves and other women as real people in all shapes and sizes, accepting their ” imperfections” and taking control over their own bodies.”  (extract from the catalog, about “Stop trying to fit in that old corset”)

Objectified 2018

CICA Museum, South Korea
January 26  – February 11 , 2017

Featured Artists 참여작가:

Sungmin Ahn/안성민, M.J. Alexander, Naama Attias, Manss Aval, Abigail Barefoot, Bartosz Beda, Caroline Byrne, CALEMBOUR, Gaby Berglund Cárdenas, Gary Duehr, Zac Endter,Janice Howard, Masha Ivanova, Zachary Jesse, Jeongeun Jo/ 조정은, Julian M Johnson, KELLEY, Kaisu Koski, Jinwoo Lee/이진우, Alves Ludovico, Alejandro Macias, Ella McCartney, Rosemary Meza-DesPlas, Naween Noppakun, Joanna Palmer, PWMD, Andre Rubin, Jen Vaughn, Richard Westerhuis, Lisa Willgress, Melissa Vogley Woods.

Click to open the catalog

“Women have traditionally been discouraged from expressing anger for fear of being perceived as unladylike or worse — as dangerous or destabilizing. This exhibit demonstrates that anger can be used as a positive outlet.”

“Today, many women are angry,” says Judy Langston, exhibit curator. “Recent pushbacks in hard fought political and legal gains made by women, and ongoing assaults on the health and safety of women and other marginalized groups, as well as on the environment, would suggest that the time is right for some well-placed, righteous indignation. Most striking was the deeply felt anger and sadness women expressed about their own conditions. This is a great opportunity for the community to examine the talents and vulnerabilities of exceptional artists.”

Feeling proud to be part of this new exhibition: “Women and Anger: Resistance, Power and Inspiration” and to be exhibiting for the third time at Koehnline Museum of Chicago, Illinois, from Sep.28 until Oct. 20th.

“She’s beautiful when she’s angry”, woodcut on textile/mm, 90 x 100 cm, 2016

Read more about this exhibition in The Daily Herald and The Chicago Tribune.

Special collections & archives of the Univ. of Kent writing about a our current show “Prescriptions”: books on illness, grieving, surgery, birth, recovery, mental health, aging, treatments and wellbeing, running until Nov.17th, 2017 at the Templeman Library at University of Kent in Canterbury, UK.

My books “Don’t retouch anything!” and “Wedding series 1819-1998” are on show. Paper from 1800’s Swedish Royal Announcements, ink, contact prints and a zirconia ring are some of the materials used.

Pages from “Wedding series 1819-1998”, mixed media, 2017

Pages from “Wedding series” 1819-1998, mixed media, 2017

Pages from “Don’t retouch anything”, mixed media, 2017

Pages from “Don’t retouch anything”, mixed media, 2017

Bound and Unbound IV is an international juried altered book exhibition at University Libraries, at the University of South Dakota:

“As artists, I believe, one of our roles in society is to protect and foster culture. Altered books seemingly exist as a contradiction to this; destroying the old to foster in the new, by using a cultural icon, the book, as a delivery system for new information outside the bounds of its original intent. I would hope that all the artists in this show hold a certain amount of reverence for the object they are destroying or obfuscating. I believe it is selfish to claim our personal expression is more valid than the information expressed in the book. But, as the book slowly declines as our society become more and more digital, can this mode still be relevant in today’s constant barrage of information? I believe these artworks act as a surrogate for these books, creating monuments and symbols that try to capture the logic of a book in the aesthetic of art.

We are asked as viewers to contemplate these works in consideration of the objects they were born of. The title of this show is Bound and Unbound, a reference to how books are assembled and made. It is a reference to the object itself without considering the information within its pages. It is looking at the object of a book as its physical form: pages, registers, binding and cover. In the works that were selected for this show, I am curating what I believe to be a transformation from object to icon. These works are ruminations and ideations of what the book as an object has a chance to become once divorced from its original intent. Art in itself is a language outside of the letters and words. These works are examples of when a book goes beyond its contents and becomes more than a possession. Your favorite book is something beyond a written tome of increasingly important thoughts. It is something that you use to construct yourself: to become wiser, excited, smarter, faster, better informed, inspired and more empathetic. I see these themes in the works themselves. We look at the weaving that recreates a map on top of the book. The topography of the thread creating an alternate universe that we can only imagine travelling. This transformation is what this show is about to me. The object is reborn/transmuted/challenged. The reader is now asked to read a form. Bound and Unbound IV is the sum of its parts, an exhibition of books undone and put back together. ” – Eli Show, juror.

Artists from Australia, Denmark, England, Puerto Rico, Romania, and the United States are represented in this exhibition running from Aug. 21, 2017 until Jan.3, 2018. 

Their digital library is in the process of publishing photos here

More videos and photos will follow on Instagram

NO MIND II, ink on Nepalese paper, 2.4 x 1.77 x 56 inches

After six months living in Houston I didn’t know what a huge honor it was to be selected for The Big Show, with juror Toby Kamps, former Curator of The Menil Collection and soon-to-be Director and Chief Curator of the Blaffer Art Museum. As usual, I didn’t enter for the competition but because the theme was interesting and it gave me a chance to exhibit one of my scrolls locally.

The scrolls were made in S. Korea and they were initially 3. Today they are over 20 pieces. They are by far the most humble works I have made yet the most important, meaningful and fun. They are part of my own meditation practice by handwriting with ink the words “no mind” repeatedly. This practice remind us of the Japanese Zen monks who in ancient times drew Enso circles of enlightenment with ink as part of their own meditation. The circles, like the handwriting, do not need to be perfect as they reflect the state of mind of the writer at the moment of performance. The dream is to show them together, as the last series of 15 pieces explores the use of mindfulness in the healing process of the mental illness.

Of the 3 initial scrolls mounted on antique wood spools one became part of the permanent collection of Kent University Special Collections and Archives in UK after “Prescriptions” exhibition at The Beany Museum in Canterburry. The other piece is currently in Venice after a recent exhibition at The Scuola Internazionale Di grafica Venezia and will stay there as part of a travelling exhibition of “Scrolls” in Italy.

This year’s organizing Theme
It is a truism that life moves fast and that change is a constant. In the 21st century, rates of change in our ecological, economic, and political lives are accelerating and increasing at breakneck speed. Even consciousness itself is under constant pressure as new technologies transfer images, messages, and memes from the screen to the mind at the speed of light.

It’s truly an honor to be part of the IV International Biennial of Artists’ Books:  “Il Viaggio come Metafora, I’lo e la Natura (THE TRAVEL METAPHOR, NATURE AND I) exploring our journey in life as a metaphor where we are in close contact with the four elements of nature. It’s inspiration was the breathtaking nature of the venue: The Casa Museo Pietro Malossi, located in a village on the southern border of the Ome area, at the foot of the forested slopes of Mount Delma, and is crossed by the canal Molinaria that, as suggested by the same name, moved the wheels of a mill from grain and a mallet iron, existing factories probably since the fifteenth century. The whole place retains its striking beauty and magic.

The Museum is the house where Andrea Averoldi lived, an antiquarian whose collections now part of this museum include more than six thousand prints from woodcuts and lithographs to copper engravings and etchings.

Curator Virginia Millici has organized the international artists’ books biennial for the 9th time gathering a group of international artists, each of us with our own diverse practice, but brought together by a common interest in the medium of the book.

Artists’ books became popular throughout the 1960s and early 1970s and the genre has continued to expand. During the 1980s and 1990s many more artists began to use the book as a medium for self-expression and they continue to do so. Techniques remain varied and range from the traditional to the experimental. Small presses and individuals have continued to promote the art of letterpress printing and the hand-crafted book. Some artists have chosen to use computer-generated images while others have used the photocopier to reproduce their work. Many artists have taken up the challenge to experiment with the content and physical structure of the traditional book form. Bookworks and book objects have continued to step outside conventional boundaries to encompass concepts associated with the fine arts. Works range from the minuscule to the gargantuan. Bookworks are not restricted to the use of paper and ink but can incorporate all kinds of materials and appended objects. While such works are usually unique or limited editions, some are produced in multiple copies.

Exhibition title: IV Bila Biennale Internazionale Libro D’Artista, “Il Viaggio come Metafora, I’lo e la Natura (THE TRAVEL METAPHOR, NATURE AND I)

Museo: FONDAZIONE CASA MUSEO PIETRO MALOSSI, Borgo del Maglio, Ome, Italy

Period:  July 2nd – September 12th, 2017

Curator: Virginia Millici

Organizer:  Associazione Culturale Art Gallery/Museum Nabila Fluxus in collaboration with Associazione Culturale ” Il Borgo Del Maglio “

Participating artists:    Ariberto Badaloni, Paola Baldassini, Luisa Balicco, Tiziana Baracchi, Gaby Berglund Cardenas, Sarah Bodman, nicoletta bustreo, Sirlei Caetano, Mara Caruso, Maria Teresa Terry Cazzaro, Renata Di Palma, cinzia farina, Grupo Gralha Azul, Arlene Hawrot Landry, Jeanette E. Kohler, Mario Lagos, Beatrice Landucci, Mire Le Fay, Ruggero Maggi, Danilo Micheletto, Virgy M. Milici, Janis Rudolfs Nedela, Csaba Pal, Walter Pennacchi, Fabio Pera, Gentile Polo, Maria Pujol, Rosella Quintini, Roberta Spettoli, Maria Do Carmo Toniolo Kuhn, Luca Xodo

More details on  Exibart’s art newspaper, Rome.

This is the Facebook page created for the Biennial where you can follow up the upcoming exhibition and also see a preview of photos of the museum before the exhibition.

Book of Balance I, mixed media, 2013, S. Korea, Gaby B. Cardenas

The location of the museum

After “Scrolls” exhibition ended at the SG Gallery in Venice, my scroll will stay longer with the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica Venezia as this is a travelling exhibition. The beautifully located school was founded in 1969 and is the premier university program in Venice for Printmaking and Book Arts, as well as the most established and equipped studio for professional and practicing artists. One of the organizers of “Scrolls”, the Associazione VIS Venetiae Incipit Scriptorium, whose goal is to teach and keep the ancient art of calligraphy, posted these photos of the opening April 17th.

A scroll is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper which has been written, drawn or painted upon for the purpose of decoration or preserving or transmitting information. Scrolls were the first form of editable record keeping texts, used in Eastern Mediterranean ancient Egyptian civilizations. While the scroll was popular until the fourth century, it was gradually replaced by the codex, which is a book in the format used for modern books.

“No Mind I” artist’s book, handwritten calligraphy on Nepalese paper, limited edition of 3, each unique.

A view from the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica, photo by J. Davis.