GRAB BACK: PES Feminist Incubator, Phase One
January 18 - February 18, 2017

Featured Artists: Angela Fraleigh and Michele Pred

Phase One of GRAB BACK: PES Feminist Incubator featured two concurrent topical artist projects by Angela Fraleigh and Michele Pred.

Angela Fraleigh’s project one by one they have vanished in the blank behind their names addressed the historical erasure or dismissal of the female voice. Some of the selected large scale paintings highlighted female figures who have long been thought of as passive or ancillary. In revisioning these characters as the foremost subject, Fraleigh gave them a voice and reconfigured the idea of narrative and female agency. Fraleigh’s other works, which featured fighting animals, were a more obvious homage to the larger idea of GRAB BACK; swathed in heavy saturated colors and rich with aggressive tension, the works were selected to inspire and rally people to fight against patriarchy.

Michele Pred’s project The Wage Gap highlighted the continued inequities in the valuation of women in America. Pred shared with the audience the wide spectrum of wage inequality across racial groups, an element that furthered the discourse around intersectional feminism and the rampant gender-based racism that still exists today. Through a series of literature, discussions, and an installation of Pred’s trademark statement Pred-a-Porter purses, this project was both an exposé and a call to action.

In addition to these projects, January 18th marked the opening of the Feminist Reading Lounge and a previously ongoing interactive project called the Pussy Polaroid Project. The Feminist Reading Lounge was a communal space within the gallery where the public was invited to read and discuss feminist material. It also became home to public workshops and programs throughout the duration of the GRAB BACK program.The Pussy Polaroid Project invited women to actively GRAB BACK against the patriarchy by sharing their image and voice in a collective effort. Polaroids of participating women were  added to an ever-growing wall of portraits in the gallery space and shared on Instagram with the moniker @pesgrabback.