Shoshanna Weinberger
(Jamaican-American, b. 1973)
Busted Seams 36DD, 2015
Gouache on paper
19.5 x 15 in.
Gallery Purchase during the 2016 Art Acquisition Party with contributions from Malu Alvarez ’02, Jane Avinger, Susan Beaumont, Armando Bellmas, Lydia Bittner-Baird, Chai Lu Bohannan ’14, Elizabeth Bradford, Caroline Brooks ’15, Im Chan, John Christian, Howard Daniel ’72, Dan Drayer, Rosemary Droney, Jennifer Sudul Edwards, Emily Mehta Farlow ’11, Donna Ferguson, John Ferraris, Monica King Friel, Anna Grumman ’19, Kate Hall ’16, Richard C. Halton ’77, Elizabeth Harry ’14, Scott Harry, Stephanie Glaser ’92 & Thomas Hazel ’92, Burkhard Henke, Joan C. Huntley, John David Ike ’13, Caitlin James ’14, Chandra and Jimmie Johnson, Amy Clemmons King ’97, Jamie Knowles ’10, Nan & Bill Loftin ’81, Fred Lopp ’63, Frank Lord ’89, Susan Norman McAlister ’85, Dan McLawhorn ’70 & Rob Hazelgrove, Louise Mohamed, Kate Nation, Sherry Nelson, Ginny Newell ’78, Madeline Newman, Lia Newman, Sara Nordstrand ’14, Elena M. Paul ’85, Annie Porges, Tatum Pottenger ’14, Sara Pottenger ’79, Jeff Prince, Julia Rich ’14, Sam Riehl ’15, Barbara Schreiber, Lucy Sexton ’16, Holly Sinkway, Tom and Kathe Stanley, Elizabeth Stern, Mary Taibl, Brad Thomas, Ian Thomson ’15, Bob Trotman, Linda Vista, and Russ & Lyn Bolen Warren ’83.
Shoshanna Weinberger catalogues her public and private experiences growing up in a society obsessed with particular notions of beauty.
The misshapen figure in Busted Seams 36DD teeters on a single leg in a high-heeled shoe, her body composed mostly of multiple breasts and loops of braided hair wrapped in gold chains—a simplified, almost animalistic, sexualized depiction of a woman. The chains could be interpreted as the psychological trappings associated with female beauty, or, more literally for the biracial artist, a reference to America’s history with slavery. The title makes reference to Weinberger’s own bra size, tying her identity directly to the figure in the artwork, and reflecting the artist’s internal conflict around body image, race, and gender.
Biography
Weinberger earned her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1995) and her MFA from Yale University, New Haven, CT (2003). She has exhibited in solo and group shows in the United States and Jamaica at such venues as the National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston; Solo(s) Project House, Newark, NJ; Woman Made Gallery, Chicago; and the Newark Arts Fest, Newark, NJ. Her awards and fellowships include a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant, a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship, and the Dawn Scott Memorial Award from the National Gallery of Jamaica. She recently became the McMillan-Steward Endowed Chair in Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Weinberger currently resides in Newark, NJ.
Media
Studio visit from quarantine