Jess Stapp (she/her)

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Like a Girl: Art, Sports, and Inclusion

Patina, 2025

Like A Girl explores the shared values between contemporary artists and athletes in the advancement of women’s and LGBTQ+ rights in the United States. Athletes and artists have both proven to be cultural forces that not just respond and react to culture but shape it. As we navigate conversations around LGBTQ+ inclusion in sports, specifically the inclusion of trans girls, this exhibition offers the unique opportunity to celebrate queer participation in sports while imagining a more inclusive America. It aims to uplift women and queer athletes and challenge the idea that excluding trans athletes protects women in sports. From their own personal love of athletics and relationship to sports and queerness, this group of artists employ a wide range of strategies to share their perspectives through video art, sculpture, painting, fused glass, illustration, collage, and ceramics.

Artists

Abby Jo Elle, an Indianapolis based artist, is a painter whose current preferred medium is pottery.

She has educational background in pre-art therapy, painting, and psychology.

Abby draws inspiration from her personal and moral interests for her work.

With clay as her canvas, using the “sgraffito” method of carving, she prioritizes this medium to help ground herself in a chronically online world.

Her motivation is connecting people through art, media, and advocating for intersectional environmentalism.

Alexa is a ceramic artist in Indianapolis, IN. she received her BFA in ceramics from Herron School of Art & Design in 2017. Alexa’s focus is on functional work, but loves handbuilding when she’s feeling more playful. In her downtime, Alexa took her flower spotting skills from elementary soccer games and turned it into her favorite hobby of gardening in her back yard with her dog, goose.

Alyssa Day

Alyssa is a stained & fused glass artist who has been working with glass for about 4 years. Her work is heavily inspired by nature and 60s/70s home decor and color palettes. What started out as a hobby in her spare bedroom quickly turned into her passion & full time job. Alyssa now teaches classes at her glass studio on the east side of Indianapolis and hopes to help grow the local glass community.

Ellery is an artist and educator in Indianapolis. She tries her best to find time to play every day.

Erin, Taylor, and Cory met while working as commercial set decorators in Indianapolis, where they quickly bonded over their shared love for all things whimsical, nostalgic, and just a little over-the-top. With backgrounds in graphic design, film production, and fine arts, they’ve made a career out of turning the ordinary into the extraordinary—whether it’s dressing a commercial set or turning a pile of Facebook Marketplace sourced materials into a giant dog of cartoonish scale, radiating charm, whimsy, and playfulness.

From high-end commercial sets to large-scale installations, Erin, Taylor, and Cory are on a mission to spark joy, nostalgia, and just the right amount of wonder. The trio continues to push the boundaries of their craft, proving that even the most ephemeral art—whether on screen or in sculpture—can leave a lasting impression.

Juul (pronounced like you’ll or Yule) moved from the Netherlands to London in 2020 and 3 years later she graduated from London College of Fashion (UAL) as a Fashion Illustrator. After finding out that the fashion industry wasn’t for her, she realized she could combine her two favourite things: sports and art. And her dream job as ✨ sports illustrator ✨ was created. With her colourful art work, she tries to bring more femininity into the usually masculine sports industry.

Juul mostly draws on Procreate, but is currently obsessed with wax pastels and Lino printing.

Kass is a full time high school ceramics teacher, with a Bachelor’s of Art Education from Herron School of Art and Design at IUPUI. Kass works and resides on the east side of Indianapolis with her husband Darrien. Kass’s work typically focuses on creating functional pieces that elevate the little moments of our lives. In her hand built work, Kass is inspired by pop-culture references.

Kate Williams is a wetland ecologist by day, ceramic artist and sewist by night (and weekends, and whenever the kiln isn’t being moody). She spends her time navigating both environmental regulations and fabric stores with equal passion, and believes strongly that mud—whether clay or swamp—is a perfectly valid life choice.

Katya is a ceramic artist based in Indianapolis, they got their BFA in ceramics from Herron School of Art and Design. Their work serves as an expression of queer life through the lens of the natural world.

Gretchen is a Barney bag kid who gets her inspiration from the world around her. Self taught, and self led through various mediums, all funneling into her brand Mama Ochre, her own evolving creative experiment. Gretchen is a visual merchandiser and shop designer at IKEA and lives in Broad Ripple with her three children and her Australian Shepherd, Moon.

Max Trumpower is an artist from Charlotte, North Carolina. Trumpower currently lives and works in Indianapolis, Indiana. Trumpower graduated with a BFA Studio Art degree in May 2022 with a concentration in painting, with a secondary concentration in ceramics from Appalachian State University. They attended Indiana University Southeast for their post-baccalaureate in ceramics for the 2023-2024 academic year. Max will be a MFA Ceramics Candidate at Indiana University Bloomington in the Fall of 2025.

Trumpower was a short term resident at the Red Lodge Clay Center in the winter of 2024. Max was the Studio Intern for Arrowmont School of Crafts for summer 2024, and was Melissa Weiss’ studio apprentice during the fall of 2024 prior to Hurricane Helene. Trumpower received the Appalachian Visions Scholarship through Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts where they were fully funded to attend Arrowmont’s Pentaculum Residency. They also were a summer resident artist at Pocosin School of Fine Craft in the summer of 2023. Trumpower in the past has received the Jody and Peter Petschauer scholarship, where they were fully funded to attend a summer workshop at the Penland School of Crafts. In the summer of 2025, Max will be attending a fully funded residency through the Max Hanrahan Award at the Watershed Center for Ceramics.

Meghan Curran

Oliver is a freelance artist, living in Saint Paul Minnesota. They are currently working in the sports industry as a football videographer. They would like to eventually land in Chicago as a professional artist and model.

Rachel is a ceramic artist from Irvington Indianapolis. She enjoys creating functional pieces and is exploring sculptural works. All of her pieces are handmade on the wheel and frequently incorporate sgraffito. In the future she would like to harvest wild clay from the forests of Indiana.

Becky Entrican is an oil painter and illustrator based in Indy. She graduated with a BFA in Painting in 2021 from Herron School of Art and Design. Her art focuses on the ties between objects and memories, treating everyday toys and trinkets as ways to trace human history just like artifacts in a museum.

Ross is an art director by day and a ceramics newbie by night.

Sarah is a 4th year Neurodevelopmental Disabilities resident at Riley. She earned her Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine and Masters of Public Health degrees from A. T. Still University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona and her Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater from Wake Forest University. When she’s not at the hospital, she enjoys all things art, spending time her huskies, Stella and Luna, and doing life with her boyfriend, Kody.

Taylor has been making ceramics since 2022 and made her first quilt in 2020 during the pandemic. She played rugby with the Indianapolis Hoydens and Tulsa Rugby Club until she tore both ACLs. This is her first time showing art in a show. She lives in Greenfield with her wife, Jodi and their animal farm that includes 2 dogs, 2 cats, and 9 chickens.

These sports trading card templates were made by Alex Luciano.

Find her online at https://www.alexluciano.com and @g_a_l_e_x on Instagram!

Research

Artists

Betsy odom

monica kim garza

lourdes grobet

sophie inard

lev rosenbush

mallory tolcher

jansson stegner

evgen copi gorisek

riikka hyvonen

Exhibitions

she's a knockout: sport, gender, and the body in contemporary art at lowe art museum

Artists featured in this exhibition are Bianca Argimón, Libby Black, Zoë Buckman, Monica Kim Garza, Riikka Hyvonen, Sophie Kirchner, Eddie Lanieri, Hazel Meyer, Fay Sanders, Sheena Rose, and Kawita Vatanajyankur.

She’s a Knockout was curated by Caitlin Swindell, Chief Curator, Vero Beach Museum of Art.

fearless project

by jeff sheng

In 2003, Jeff Sheng began photographing LGBT high school and college athletes who were "out" to their teammates, as an artistic self-exploration of his own identity as a former closeted high school athlete. Over the last 13 years, the project has expanded to now include over 200 athletes.

The project was published into a book in 2015, FEARLESS: Portraits of LGBT Student Athletes.

resistance training: art, sports, and civil rights at msu broad art museum

Athletics at Michigan State University has been celebrated over the years for its progressive stance when it comes to racial and social integration, and gender equality. In observance of the recent 50-year anniversary of the passing of Title IX legislation in this country (1972), it is an important moment to highlight the many victories in this struggle for civil rights, specifically through the unique relationship between the arts and sports, while also learning from the past and the ongoing struggle for social justice.

Get in the game: sports, art, culture

at San francisco museum of modern art

Athletic competition has inspired many contemporary artists to create works responding to the game’s emotional drama, the fan’s enthusiasm, the athlete’s discipline, and the implicit and explicit codes governing how games are played and who gets to play them. The exhibition brings together over 100 works of art, design, interactive installations, and media related to the world of sports, including athletic fashion and gear, Formula 1 race car steering wheels, and a display of surfboards (this is a California show, after all).

Athletes

Renée Richards

Pioneering transgender tennis player who fought for the right to compete as a woman in the 1976 US Open.

Layshia Clarendon

First out and trans nonbinary player in the WNBA.

Chris Mosier

First transgender athlete sponsored by Nike, and the first transgender athlete to qualify for the Olympic Trials in the gender they identify.

Schuyler Bailar

First openly transgender NCAA Division I swimmer, and also the first publicly documented NCAA D1 transgender man to compete as a man in any sport.

Nikki Hiltz

American trans and nonbinary middle-distance runner who competed at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Jaiyah Saelua

American Samoan who is the first openly non-binary and trans woman to compete in a FIFA World Cup qualifier. The soccer star identifies as fa'afafine, a third gender in Polynesian society.

Gallery

Patina is a new gallery, studio, and event space dedicated to providing an accessible and affordable platform for 3D artists, particularly those from the LGBTQIA+ community, artists of color, women-identifying artists, and other underrepresented groups. Located on the Near East side of Indianapolis, their mission is to create an inclusive environment where diverse voices can showcase their work without financial barriers, as they do not take commissions on any art sales. Like a Girl will be Patina's first exhibition.

2201 E Michigan St, Indianapolis, IN 46201

Fundraiser

Profile of Learning: Community Contributor

Advocating for trans rights is so critical right now, that I wanted to use this exhibition as a way to tangibly support the trans community in Indy, specifically trans athletes. They are Indianapolis’ only women’s rugby team. The Hoydens have been nurturing an inclusive community, and respect for and growth of the sport for 30 years. The Indy Hoydens stand with trans, nonbinary, and queer athletes and friends. They believe that rugby is for everyone.

Proceeds from some of the art sold went to the Indianapolis Hoydens Rugby Team for a total donation of $970.

Hoydens after their May 3rd win again Toledo!

Team captain, Jodie, with her wife, Taylor.

Marketing

I shared these two images on my Instagram in February to tease the exhibition and get people excited to come see it in May. There was so much interest, and I took submissions of artwork to include.

I posted these images of artwork from my research to set the tone for the artwork I was looking to show, and inspire artists who wanted to make work specifcally for the exhibtion.

As excitement was growing for this exhibition, I realized I couldn't rely on my novice graphic design skills to make a flyer for this event. I contacted Herron School of Art and Design alumnus, Erin Buckley, to help. I sent her an overview of the exhibition plus some inspiration and she turned it into this wonderful flyer!

Get in touch at JessStapp2@gmail.com

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