Image: Macon Reed, Eulogy for the Dyke Bar, Plastic and digital photo reproductions. Dimensions vary. Wayfarers Gallery, New York, NY, 2015.

Thu, Apr 4, 2019
6:30–8:30 pm
Off-site: Wattis Institute
(free and open to the public)

To Know Herself is curated by Yomna Osman, the second-year student in CCA’s Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice. To Know Herself explores the lesbian bar as a place for social and political change. Maud’s, for example, which operated from 1961 to 1989, and Amelia’s, which operated from 1978 to 1991, were two of the most popular and longest-running spaces both owned by respected LGBTQ activist Rikki Streicher (1922–1994). More recently, The Lexington Club, a beloved lesbian dive bar and LGBTQ cultural landmark located in the Mission, closed its doors in 2015. Queer spots have since emerged in the city, but none have gathered as vibrant a community as any of these now lost bars.

Utilizing the bar in CCA Wattis Institute’s event space in lieu of its gallery space next door, the exhibition presents new and existing by two artists, Tammy Rae Carland and Macon Reed.

Tammy Rae Carland (b. 1965, Portland, ME) is a multi-media artist working mainly in photography. Carland is the current provost at California College of the Arts (CCA). Her work engages with queer identity and intimacy; it also looks at marginality as a fertile site for resistance as opposed to victimhood or disempowerment. This April, she will participate in the group exhibition Queer California: Untold Stories at the Oakland Museum of California.

Macon Reed (b. 1981, Arlington, VA) is an artist working in sculpture, installation, video, radio documentary, painting, and participatory projects. Motivated by human relationships within evolving queer and intersectional feminist frameworks, her projects recognize that aesthetic form and social engagement are deeply intertwined. Reed is currently participating in a group show at the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design titled Interior/Exterior.