Shades of Separation: Women in the Grey Area
- April 30, 2025 - October 13, 2025
ART 300 - Critical Theory for Visual Studies is pleased to present Shades of Separation: Women in the Grey Area. Women in the United States and Europe, having been historically placed within the domestic sphere, are assigned a role that is inherently separate from the labor market. Deconstructing the active male/passive female binary, scholars Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock, in their 1981 book Old Mistresses: Women, Art and Ideology, illuminate societal tendencies toward erasure of women’s contribution to popular art historical discourse. They employ anecdotes and quotes from critics that show how women are defined as lesser than, either reducing their work to triviality or attributing their success to male imitation.
Our exhibition, focused on the concept of separation, utilizes Parker and Pollock’s framework to interpret artworks that display the physical and metaphorical severance of women from each other and from society. Simultaneously, each artwork will be positioned alongside a “brother work” that shows the connectivity of men to one another and to spaces of collaboration (either by artist or figural comparison). Within the gender binary, the centralization of men as the default can be viewed through their ability to maintain connectivity, and the marginalization of women, placing them literally within the confines of the home and of limited spaces, perpetuates these stereotypes and intensifies perceived limitations.
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A special thanks to our ART 300 class:
Sasha Behrens ’26
Sabrina Bonavita ’26
Ella Grace Dunn ’26
Caroline Ewing ‘26
Alex French ’25
Grace Gallagher ’26
Cate Goodin ’26
Gibby Heiser ’26
Mallory Kavanaugh ’26
Siobhan Kelley ’26
Charlotte LaBenne ’26
Heidi McGannon ’26
Saiya Mehta ’27
Brooke Rascoe ’26
Victoria Spadacenta ’27
Our professor Dr. John Corso-Esquivel
And the support from Davidson Arts & Creative Engagement, Lia Rose Newman, Marisa J. Pascucci, Trasheil Sinnet, and everyone from the Van Every/Smith Gallery team for making this exhibition possible.
