Out of Body: Selected Artworks from the Brodsky Center at PAFA

Exhibition Info
Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building
Curated by
Leigh Werrell, PAFA's Art Sales Manager
"Out of Body" brings together works from the Brodsky Center at PAFA’s collection that focus on ideas of physicality, transformation, autonomy, and control of bodies. In conversation with PAFA’s Joan Semmel exhibition, Skin in the Game, these works question the ways that we consider the freedom and form of our own bodies and those of others, using techniques in printmaking and papermaking.

The work of Lynda Benglis and Joan Semmel find the tangibility of a body in motion, while a new edition by Sharon Hayes examines the removal of physical autonomy when bodies are controlled by expectations of the public. A portfolio by Chitra Ganesh juxtaposes delicate marks with grotesque corporeal forms, while Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Emma Amos and Faith Ringgold manifest a celebration of bodies through movement and self-love, and Carrie Mae Weems and Isaac Julien explore the rejection of Black bodies from white cultural spaces. This exhibition asks the viewer to contextualize their views of the body, and to re-think ingrained ideals and expectations around the human form.

The Brodsky Center at PAFA is an Artist Residency Program that serves to educate students as well as develop and promote the work of outstanding innovative artists.  Since its establishment under Founding Director Judith K. Brodsky, the Center has completed over 660 limited editions with a diverse range of emerging and established artists, including the work on view in this exhibition.

To learn more about the Brodsky Center and works available for sale, please visit www.brodskycenter.com or contact lwerrell@pafa.org.

Joan Semmel (American, b. 1932)
Joan Semmel (American, b. 1932)

Untitled, 2007
Digital print
Edition of 60, from Femfolio, 2007, a portfolio of twenty prints by twenty artists.
Published by the Brodsky Center at PAFA, Philadelphia
Collaborative printmaker: John C. Erickson
Chitra Ganesh (American, b. 1975)
Chitra Ganesh (American, b. 1975)

Delicate Line: (Corpse She Was
Holding),2009–2010
Portfolio of 11 silkscreen prints with lithography, monotype, relief, and glitter on commercial and handmade paper.
Edition of 20.
Published by the Brodsky Center at PAFA, Philadelphia

Chris Ofili (British, b. 1968)
Chris Ofili (British, b. 1968)

After the Dance, 2006
Five-color silkscreen on Somerset Velvet White paper
Edition of 70, from The Rivington Place Portfolio
Published by the Brodsky Center at PAFA, Philadelphia
Collaborative printmaker: Randy Hemminghaus
Faith Ringgold (American, b. 1930)
Faith Ringgold (American, b. 1930)

Somebody Stole My Broken Heart, 2005
Five-color lithograph on Arches Cover White paper
Edition of 100
Published by the Brodsky Center at PAFA, Philadelphia
Collaborative printmaker: Randy Hemminghaus