Before becoming the well-known artist-run space in Wakefield that it is today, Hera Gallery was the brainchild of a group of women connected to the University of Rhode Island seeking space for a consciousness-raising feminist activist group. It was 1974, and most held traditional roles as wives and mothers; they found this connection helped them maintain their identity outside of the home.
Eventually, the founding members decided to start a gallery cooperative for underrepresented artists, and it was wildly successful. Women from Boston, New York, and Providence were lining up to be part of it and show their art at the gallery, which has had incredible longevity. It was one of the first women-run artist co-ops to open in the U.S., and the concept quickly became a popular one. Today, it continues to make innovative, contemporary art accessible to Rhode Island, and gives women artists both a community and an opportunity for artistic expression, but Hera Gallery is also one of only three of the original ‘70s-era gallery co-ops left in existence.
“Because we’re artist-run, there’s no censorship to the artwork,” says Sonja Czekalski, former director of Hera Gallery and current member of the board. “Artists are free to make and express what they think is important.” She also praises the co-op model. “Galleries can be intimidating to some artists, but because we have a non-hierarchical structure, Hera is a beautiful and nurturing space for artists to experience making and showing art.”
Czekalski has been making feminist art since she was 13. “I come from a family of strong women and it was important to me to make work that shared those stories,” she says. As a teen, she would take art classes at school and then head home to make clothes, knit, or quilt with her grandmother. “She’d teach me a certain stitch and then I’d go off pattern and make something else. She’d insist I stick to the pattern, but I liked taking these traditional craft forms and playing with them, extending them, and breaking them a bit.”
She went back and forth between two-dimensional figurative studies and fiber art until she was in grad school and realized she could combine the two art forms. “There was an artist at the Rhode Island School of Design whose MFA was in painting, but she was making beautiful embroideries. Through her, I learned how you can use fiber to mix colors and paint. She taught me how to make paper, natural dyes, and natural materials.”
Czekalski’s foray into creating sustainable art materials set her on a new path. “I was thinking about the connection between feminism and climate change, and how climate change impacts women and families, yet comes from this patriarchal capitalist culture. How can I talk about this work when I’m using toxic paint or plastic paint brushes? So I started being more conscious about my materials and making things from plants or recycled materials. I don’t buy anything I don’t have to.”
Czekalski currently has an exhibition on display at Hera called Guilty by Association that explores witchcraft and women’s health. The works are about abortion, birth control, menstruation, mental health, and ignorance surrounding women’s symptoms. “Any show I put together starts with telling women’s stories,” she says. “Right now, all my friends are getting pregnant or trying not to get pregnant, so these are the conversations I’m having every day.”
She’s also working on a two-person exhibition in partnership with another Hera artist. “It’s about the color pink,” she says. “I don’t know if it’s about the fun side of feminism because I don’t know if there is one, but I definitely use more glitter and sequins.”
A member artist at Hera, Carrie Usmar, who has also shown works at the Newport Art Museum, is a mixed visual artist who works in photography, film, and embroidery, and many of her themes are centered on motherhood. “I used to write a lot,” she says. “That was my outlet for my big focus, which is not feeling alone and helping others not feel alone.” As a mother of small children, Osmar often felt isolated. “I was going to the library and doing kid stuff, but there was a lack of a deeper connection. That’s why my work focuses on the things people don’t talk about. I think when people are open and honest about their experiences, it’s easier to connect
on a deeper level.”
Usmar’s recent photography project, Resume of a Stay at Home Mom, turns the traditional family album on its head. Photos of her interacting with her children in everyday ways are paired with text you might find on an employment application, such as “always available” or “leads complex processes.”
“The chaos, beauty, and stress of motherhood can be a lot, and making helps me go to another place and then come back.” Her current project, which is about motherhood and gardening, allows her to do that both literally and figuratively. “I go to my garden to escape,” she says. “The garden tasks take me to another place and then bring me back to myself.”
Minoo Emami is an Iranian artist and adjunct professor at Roger Williams University in Bristol. Her work, which has been collected privately and within the permanent collection of the Newport Art Museum, explores the intergenerational impact of war and how it impacts women’s lives. Like Usmar, she often lands on caretaking and a deep need for connection. Emami grew up in Iran during the revolution and was married to a veteran, so her early life experiences were heavily influenced by war. “I started repetitively painting prostheses because they were common household objects in my life. Military service is mandatory for men over 18, and many veterans lost limbs,” she says describing her war series of paintings.
Emami’s work evolved and she eventually began to include women in her paintings. “I created a series with female arms and legs in the paintings. From there, I did a piece that included my daughter’s hand, my mother’s hand, and my sister’s hand, holding a limb that doesn’t exist. It’s about how females are responsible as caregivers to deal with the physical and emotional problems that result from war.”
In 2013, Emami began working on sculpture using preowned prostheses. “These objects are worn out,” she explains. “There are marks and imperfections. They carry the history of the person who wore it.” As she worked on these pieces, she used her network to connect with other women impacted by war, and asked them to share their stories with her. “Influenced by their stories, I wanted to transform these objects of pain and suffering into a beautiful art piece that symbolized resilience, power, and adaptation,” she says. “Eventually, I asked these women to come to my studio and spend time with me. We were like an elected family connected deeply through shared pain, and I cherished their presence. Showing my work to them celebrated their resilience and let them see the spark of what they survived. We transformed our trauma to something strong, like sisterhood, like a celebration of how they lived through life carrying their partner’s, their father’s, their son’s pain. Nursing and healing them is such a natural power of women. I hope that we don’t forget to do this for ourselves, too.”
Even though she now lives in the United States, Emami continues to stay close to her network of women in Iran and she is proud of the strength of the women there who are fighting to rise up under patriarchy. “Social and political movements in Iran are like water,” she says. “You can’t hold back water. It finds its way.”
Sonja Czekalski: SonjaCzekalski.com
Minoo Emami: EmamiMinoo.com
Carrie Usmar: CarrieUsmar.com
Currently on view at Hera Gallery is solo exhibition Fragmented Planet featuring the work of Erin Starr, and Collaborations on the theme of connections by John Kotula. Watch for a show exploring the concept of “Care” opening May 10. 10 High Street, Wakefield, HeraGallery.org
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