Micol Hebron

Artist’s Statement

I have a socially integrative, interdisciplinary practice that includes performance, installation, photography and video. My body is my medium and site of discourse. My work investigates the social, cultural and historical constructions of identity, particularly within the role and image of the female body in the wake of modernism and second wave feminism. I use art history, social games, folklore, mythology, everyday actions, memes and humor to question and destabilize expectations and stereotypes of gender and sexuality. Through my art I am interested in creating spaces in which art can facilitate interpersonal relationships, community-building, gender equity and curiosity about how and why we are the way we are.

My own body, history and socialized identity frequently become the topic of the work, though I hope that there is also the potential for an allegorical association with and for the viewer. My recent photographs have aimed to use art history, humor and intimate body imagery to explore how the female body can create positions and images of empowerment. I have also sought to do performances that encourage greater cultural awareness, increased empathy and generosity and the valuing of an experience rather than an object or relic. My performances and videos often involve participants as they address how social interactions contribute to our sense of self and subjectivity.

My recent work addresses how ideas of essentialist feminism and central-core imagery might open new dialogues in contemporary art. In a post 9/11 world that is still heavily informed by patriarchal and capitalist notions of power, I hope that by returning to these artistic strategies which explore collaboration, empathy and raising consciousness, I can offer an alternative conversation about the roles of identity and subjectivity in cultural production.

Website: micolhebron.com

Biography

Select Solo Exhibitions from 2009-2011

2011
Sisterhood is Powerful, Jancar Gallery, Los Angeles

2010
Essential, Jancar Gallery, Los Angeles

2009
Bubble Gum Pop, Central Utah Art Center, Spring City, Utah
Make Out Session, Post Gallery, Los Angeles

Select Group Exhibitions from 2009-2010

2010
Let Them EATLACMA, Bubble Gum Pop, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Love Letters to a Surrogate, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, Calif.

2009
Rogue Wave, LA Louver, Venice, Calif.
Is This The Real Life, Gallerie, Horazdovic, Czech Republic and Long Beach City College, Long Beach, Calif.

Select Community-Based Artworks

2012
College Art Association Annual Conference, ArtSpace: Media Lounge, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles

2011
DoubleSpeak: Codes and Double Entendres by Contemporary Women Artists, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City

2010
Now Playing in Los Angeles, Ball-Nogues Studio, Los Angeles
An Image for a Minute, Month of Photography LA, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, Calif.

EDUCATION

M.F.A., 2000
University of California at Los Angeles
Awards

2009
Faculty Creative/Scholarly Research Grant, Chapman University