Gallery Talk: Truth as a Contested Concept with Indira Freitas Johnson

Please join us on Saturday, November 23, for the closing reception of Woman Made Gallery's  current exhibition, “Truth as a Contested Concept.” The event includes a performance by artist Carron Little and a Gallery Talk with selected exhibiting artists. The moderator will be the show’s curator, Indira Freitas Johnson.

Carron Little creates interactive performance art that is inspired by poetry she has written. Utopic Dialectics was initially inspired by the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court as well as the ongoing forms of oppressive communication instilled by the spectacle of our current state of politics in the United States. Gendered violence and oppressive forms of communication are explored in this performance. The piece incorporates one of Little’s “people poems” written for Jose Hernandez, who now goes by Rose Hernandez. The work poetically makes the invisible visible and creates space for us, collectively, to raise questions about gendered violence and gendered communication.

An award-winning artist and educator, Indira Freitas Johnson has a passion to make art a part of everyday life. She also strives to involve local communities in the art process. Influenced by an artist father and a mother who was a social activist, Johnson believes strongly that art and activism are a powerful combination for social change.

Born in Mumbai, India, Johnson received her undergraduate degree from the University of Bombay and the Sir JJ Institute of Art. She earned her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including the prestigious Illinois Governors Award for the Arts. Chicago Magazine named her the 2013 Chicagoan of the Year.