Grace Lawson

Grace Lawson utilizes self portraiture as a means to express identity and self discovery. Their identity as a gender non-conforming lesbian heavily influences their practice as an artist. Throughout their work, Lawson not only invites the viewer into their psyche as a young queer individual in the world today, but encourages them to look inwards as well. 

Lawson is both a visual and performing artist, with a previous six years of experience as a professional circus artist. These years greatly influence their current work. Their love of performing bleeds into my images, creating an intimate relationship between subject and lens through deliberate use of body language and form. In this way, the body becomes a tool that is just as important to the intention of the art as the camera. Inspired by visual artists such as Catherine Opie and Barbara Hammer, and performing artists such as Chase Brock, Lawson aims to elicit a strong emotional response through a single body.

More Naked Than Flesh, More Resilient Than Sinew combines self portraits with historic archives using physical collage. Every image is composed of a  self portrait embedded with an appropriated artwork from the past. As both a visual and performing artist, I aim to combine queer themes with the performative aspect of self portraiture. My love of performing bleeds into my images, creating an intimate relationship between subject and lens through deliberate use of body language and form. In this way, my body becomes a tool that is just as important to the intention as the camera. Every artwork used within the portraits is made by a sapphic artist and references their attraction towards other women. By making the pieces physically, the work is given a layer of dimensionality that highlights the connection between myself and these archives as a labor of love. It becomes a symbiotic relationship, as I am influenced by the work and artists who came before me, I am also able to carry their legacy forward with me. 

Through blending performance and photography, a complex body of work is created that addresses the complicated emotions associated with identity and memory, the past and the present.

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