Lydia Panas’ Portraits Challenge Preconceived Notions of Femininity
Submitted by Kay Renz
Bailey Contemporary Arts Center (BaCA) is proud to present Sleeping Beauty, an exhibition by acclaimed photographer Lydia Panas. Utilizing large format photography and video, Panas introduces viewers to women and girls in classical poses of vulnerability, while capturing their true powerful essence. This acclaimed exhibition incorporates the viewer as a participant in a way that is both mesmerizing and thought-provoking. The opening reception takes place on Friday, January 7, 2022, during Old Town Untapped, from 6 pm-10 pm. An Artist Talk and book signing will take place on Thursday, February 3 at 7 pm and the exhibition runs through March 22, 2022. For more information, www.pompanobeacharts.org
“Sleeping Beauty inspires viewers to engage with the women and girls in the photographs in an interactive way that challenges our preconceived ideas of femininity,” said Phyllis Korab, Cultural Affairs Director. “Lydia’s photos showcase the power and beauty of real women in these compelling portraits, leading us to question the unrealistic ‘filtered’ images that we encounter on a daily basis.”
Critics and curators have praised the work for Panas’ artistic and technical mastery, and all have noted and examined the powerfully affecting gaze of her subjects. In Sleeping Beauty, her subjects lie down, a metaphor for the position girls and women have been placed in historically. But they look out with self-awareness, in a way that implies a lack of complicity.
“While my subjects do in actuality turn their gaze towards me, it’s as if at times I turn the camera onto myself, both in the present and back in time,” she said. “My current work centers on the internal conflicts and challenges women face in a world struggling to embrace their power. Countering stereotypes of the compliant female, the women in my photographs and videos challenge the viewer with a straightforward gaze, serious and lacking in complicity. The cumulative effect echoes the complex feelings of vulnerability, conflict, and anger within each of us, resulting in a discomfiting connection between subject and viewer.”
Panas’ work has been exhibited widely in museums and galleries in the U.S. and internationally including the Brooklyn Museum, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Palm Springs Art Museum, Allentown Art Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, among others. Her work has also appeared in many media outlets such as The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Village Voice and French Photo.
During the Artist Talk on February 3, Panas will sign copies of her book, Sleeping Beauty, which features the photos in the exhibition.
Bailey Contemporary Arts Center is located at 41 NE 1st St., Pompano Beach, Florida
The exhibition is free and open to the public:
Tuesdays through Fridays from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and Sundays & Mondays: CLOSED
