Exhibition

Love, Land, & Deception:
Deconstructing the Patriarchy

Love, Land, and Deception: Deconstructing the Patriarchy is a collective exhibition at Chicago Art Department that aims to portray ways in which the patriarchy affects both the land and our bodies, a relationship that is inextricable; while also allowing us to imagine futures and ways of being to exist outside of this binary narrative and structure of deception. 

It is this relationship with land that the patriarchy targets to keep us coping and healing individually which has kept us trudging alone in the treachery of its violence for thousands of years; because of that, the works in this show seek to propose new or ulterior modes of being as a larger community to combat this system of deception. This exhibition asks us to envision a world beyond “ownership” or “reclamation,” concepts that are inherently tied to domination, colonialism, and white supremacy.

As a group project, Love, Land, and Deception is a collective development of ideas about how the relationship with land is necessary for true liberation of our minds and bodies. It is a group expansion of concepts fleshed out in Black and Indigenous Futures exhibition by Akira, which expressed the healing energy that emanates from the hands who work the soil to harvest and sustain others. Restorative practices such as this may help us learn the true foundations of love and its power to transform from within.

Love, Land, and Deception group exhibition seeks to recognize deceptions of the patriarchy while revealing its individual and global impacts, and to introduce us to the possibilities of new realities. A renewed sense of love and a relationship with the land can forge the pathway to dismantling the system as a whole.

The exhibition seeks to: Explore and define the structure, system, and dynamics of the patriarchy; Investigate the patriarchies’ intersectional effects on different bodies, minds, communities, and the land; amPropose actions for remediation, healing, and deconstruction of the patriarchy at the individual, community, and/or systemic level.

  • Giovanna Aguirre-Peresson

    Giovanna Aguirre-Peresson

    Original Sin V2.0, 2020, acrylic on canvas, gold frame. 28 x 32. thegapart.com | In Abrahamic religions, its followers have been taught that humans were “kicked out” of Eden for…

  • Noa Alemán

    Noa Alemán

    Eve, Oil on canvas. 26 x 38. @noa_aleman | Traditional western figurative paintings are riddled with colonial body standards enforcing the gender binary. Just by inhabiting space, Eve confronts the…

  • Lex Applewhite

    Lex Applewhite

    Selection from Images F22, #4, (2022), Digital Photograph (truck). 9 X 12. Selection from Images Apr24, #10 (2023) Digital Photograph (barbed wire). 9 X 12. @dudegoo | My photographic work…

  • Danielle Arend

    Danielle Arend

    It’s Wears Me Out, My Fake Plastic World, Acrylic painting on sign. 48 x 78. @theflowinart | It’s Wears Me Out, My Fake Plastic World, is inspired by the song…

  • Bria Bridges

    Bria Bridges

    Home 1/3, Cardboard, acrylic, oil pastels. 16 x 28. Shows how impactful a simple conversation with a loved one can be. How the words can linger in the background of…

  • Luis Carrasco

    Luis Carrasco

    No Homo, Acrylic Spraypaint, Posca on PosterBoard. 30 x 22. Software Update, Acrylic on Canvas. 11 x 14. @luisifer.studio | I wanted to play with the deceptions of patriarchy and…

  • Katie Cercone

    Katie Cercone

    VICTORY to the MOTHER! 2021, Video. A Collaborative, socially-engaged performance art ritual [Hip Hop Yoga Puja], Evening length performance at Grace Exhibition Space, NYC, videography: Laura Weyl Features: Alees Yvon…

  • Juana Duran Charicata

    Juana Duran Charicata

    Soy Mis Antepasadas (I’m My Ancestors), Acrylic on Canvas. 48 x 36.5. @arte_duran_chicago | Soy Mis Antepasadas (I am My Ancestors) represents the strength of our ancestors’ spirit that lives…

  • San Chen

    San Chen

    Self-defacing, Digital color pencil. 20 x 16 @chensan_art | Asian women in particular are socialized to meticulously manage our expressions to be approachable, craft our appearances to be desirable, and…

  • Jason Guzman

    Jason Guzman

    La Ascensión, Papel Picado. Portrays perseverance, balance and unity with nature. A self portrait of my work in Papel Picado carrying on this tradition and cultivating craft. 36 x 42.…

  • Evelyn Rubi Hernandez

    Evelyn Rubi Hernandez

    Bearing Life, Shredded money, mesh fabric, needle and thread, twine, safety pins. 8 x 3 x 6. Navigating Independence, (digital triptych) digital art, scans of my drawings, all pictures used…

  • Insidious Studios

    Insidious Studios

    Restriction & Society, Pt I, II, III, Digital Photography. 13 x 19 each @insidioustudios | The photographs are based on the treatment of femmes, AFABS, and women in society in…

  • Akira Iyashikei

    Akira Iyashikei

    Against The Patriachy 2024 Series, Archival Ink Print. 13 x 19 each print. @_indio__ | Cultivating environments has been a beautiful practice as a steward who belongs to land. It…

  • Tai Kojro-Badziak

    Tai Kojro-Badziak

    Found Objects (Altar Pieces), shed deer antler, selenium, linen rope and thread; turkey feather, grass, twig feather, thread. A collection of items found within the urban forests of Chicago, woven…

  • Sara Laureano

    Sara Laureano

    Vessel, Sculpture. 36 x 72 x 24. @drvgee | The patriarchy strips people of identity and autonomy by subjecting them to conform to biased societal norms. the basic shapes and…

  • Kevin Lawler

    Kevin Lawler

    Shadowgraphy 1, Oil on canvas. 48 X 36. This piece is a reflection on the ingrained cultural complicity to systematic racism and both the deformation that happens within individuals found…

  • Sunshine Lombre

    Sunshine Lombre

    Performing at the Opening Event on Friday, June 14th from 6-10pm @ladylombre | Spoken word featured at Opening Event. Poem one, “She just wanted a ride home,” is a Pro-Choice…

  • Catherine (Yiwen) Lyu

    Catherine (Yiwen) Lyu

    Tree Grows Inside [Quarantine] 1, 2, 3 Digital stills from hour long performance video. catherinelyu.com | We build walls out of trees and claim ownership of their land. When we…

  • Lisa Mannion

    Lisa Mannion

    @ukuladylisa | I’ll be performing an original song called Puppet on a String. The lyrics are quite personal to me. It themes of breaking free from abusive relationships and societal…

  • Victor Manuel Manzo Meneses

    Victor Manuel Manzo Meneses

    Shiva y Shakti, Digital print of orginal acrylic on canvas. @lotoloko | My work ranges from the context of museums, theaters, buildings, and walls to underpasses. In my varied and…

  • Dani Massey

    Dani Massey

    The Scars, digital print. @neuroscipunk | The Scars declares the right to masculinity as a natural thing to be celebrated for the transmasculine individual in defiance of The Patriarchy. Those…

  • Cara Mastanduno

    Cara Mastanduno

    Performing at the Opening Event on Friday, June 14th from 6-10pm @caramastanduno | Dance performance featured at Opening Event. Dancing slowly and ecstatically has been an act of defiance where…

  • Toni Maugeri

    Toni Maugeri

    The Message Between the Lines, Mixed Media Assemblage. 12 x 12. tonimaugeriartwork.com | As a young girl growing up in our patriarchal/hierarchal system, I survived by mastering the art of…

  • Mark Nelson

    Mark Nelson

    (left) Invasive Species, Synthetic Polymer and Oil on canvas. 29 x 60 (right) A House Divided, Synthetic Polymer and Oil on canvas. 32 x 42 gringolandiastudio.com | The paintings I…

  • Earica “EP” Parrish

    Earica “EP” Parrish

    A Day in Soroa, Digital Photography. Danielle Phillips, and Afro-Cuban farmer, gives a tour of the land that she owns and cultivates in Soroa. 31 x 41. Family Farming in…

  • Gabriel Patti

    Gabriel Patti

    Human Weight, Oil and markers on panel. @gjpatti2 | I came upon this tree on Catalina Island which grew around wires pulling a limb into a crooked shape. Without the…

  • Luna Rail

    Luna Rail

    After Dickens. “They are Man’s said the Spirit, looking down on them. And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware…

  • Maria Requena/Sunflower Summit

    Maria Requena/Sunflower Summit

    Performing at the Opening Event on Friday, June 14th from 6-10pm @sunflowersummit | Music featured at Opening Event. ‘Erased’ is a song I wrote the evening Roe v. Wade was…

  • Amyia Ross

    Amyia Ross

    I wanted my own Clifford, so I got one, oil on canvas. 24 x 36. @usb_cord | usb-cord | The American dream can be described as many things, some of…

  • Kaltra Seferi

    Kaltra Seferi

    Zvernec Reimagined, archival print. 8.5 x 11. @kaltra | kaltras.com | Digital photo collage of my homeland, Albania. Albania was colonized for hundreds of years and colonizers brought patriarchal ideologies…

  • Jane Thorn

    Jane Thorn

    Marilith, Oil and mixed media on canvas. Depiction of myself as a Marilith, a type of demon from the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. 32 x 40. @zeldathorn | zeldathorn.com…

  • Jamie Tubbs

    Jamie Tubbs

    Men Only, Bibles Wrapped in Black String. 8 x 10 x 13. @Jamietubbsart | I have a complicated relationship with this book. I memorized large sections of this book, sang…

  • Hope Wood

    Hope Wood

    Cyclical Sustenance, 2023, lithograph print. 11 x 15. Womb Food, 2023, lithograph print. 10 x 7.5. @wood_hoper | hazroom.com/profile/hope-wood | My work deconstructs the patriarchy through reverence for divine femininity…

  • Araceli Zuniga

    Araceli Zuniga

    Peso Completo, 2024, Acrylic and oil on canvas. 24 x 30. Luchadores function overtly. The act of storytelling and drama through wrestling reminds me of my reflections, my longing for…