EXHIBITION STATEMENT:

SHE SLAPS features 536 street art stickers by 85 contemporary women artists from 20 countries around the world. Drawn from the private collection of Oliver Baudach, founder and director of Hatch Kingdom Sticker Museum in Berlin, Germany, the exhibition includes stickers that were individually drawn, painted, and/or printed by the artists, as well as silkscreen, offset, and digital designs that were printed in larger runs through commercial services. Baudach also sent out a worldwide call-for-entries for new stickers to add to the SHE SLAPS exhibition and to St. Lawrence University’s Street Art Graphics digital archive.

The exhibition includes portraits of women and men, fanciful “character design” creatures, and various images and texts that function as artists’ “tags.” Female personas represented in the exhibition range from dolls, punks, and riot grrls to femmes fatales and leading ladies. A handful of artists address political subjects, with one artist using photos of her cat Illchmann as a spoof on “Grumpy Cat” in order to comment on sexism, racism, and gun violence. The exhibition organizers also noted that the stickers in the show, with few exceptions, exclude images of violence, skulls, or military-related themes often found in stickers by some male artists. Several artists contributed works that are part of an ongoing global campaign called “Streetart Against Hate: To Live and Let Live,” in which artists can download circular templates with text in different languages and design their own stickers.

When asked, many artists in the exhibition indicated that identifying as a female affected their work, while others felt that gender and sexuality did not play a role. All of the artists indicated a strong sense of solidarity among street artists in general, however, whether male or female.

In accompanying text panels, artists responded to the following prompts:
-Please provide a brief description of your work.
-Does being a female artist, or identifying as a female artist, influence your work, and if so, how?
-What’s the best thing about being a female artist in the sticker world?
– Is there anything else you’d like to share?

-Catherine Tedford, gallery director and co-curator

For information about scheduling and fees, contact Catherine Tedford at 315 229-5174 or ctedford@stlawu.edu. To view photos from the #nohatefamily sticker campaign, visit https://www.instagram.com/levveunlevvelosse/.

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The German Academic Exchange Service provided initial funding to develop the SHE SLAPS! exhibition. A grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to the U.S. Council of Independent Colleges provided funding support to St. Lawrence University to catalogue stickers by women artists for the Street Art Graphics digital archive.

 

FEATURED ARTISTS:

Allison Tanenhaus (USA)
Ankana (USA)
Art.Omato (Germany)
Balo (Slovenia)
Brainoon (Germany)
Das Frohlein Moodmacher (Germany)
Fymsa (Russia)
Metraeda (Germany)
Orble (Germany)
Stickermaid (Germany)
Yarn Vandalette (Germany)