Clarity Haynes: Portals

Born 1971 in McAllen, Texas, and based in Brooklyn, NY, and upstate New York, Clarity Haynes is known for her long-standing explorations of the torso as a site for painted portraiture. Works in her Breast/Chest Portrait Project, always painted from life and usually monumental in scale, have focused on themes of healing, trauma, and self-determination. Feminist and queer craft practices are often honored in her work. Bright colors, lively compositions and multiple narratives conjoin in the depictions of both bodies and altars. Her work has been exhibited widely, including at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, New Discretions, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, and many others. Her work has been discussed in publications like Hyperallergic and Artnews, among others.

Dr. Ksenia M. Soboleva is a New York based art historian specializing in queer art and culture. She holds a Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, with a dissertation on art, AIDS, and lesbian identity in the United States. Soboleva is currently working on a book project titled Friendship as a Way of Art: Queer Identity and Visual Citation, and co-editing (with Svetlana Kitto) the first major publication on the lesbian gallery Trial Balloon. Her writings have appeared in the Brooklyn Rail, BOMB Magazine, Hyperallergic, Ursula Magazine, as well as various exhibition catalogues and artist monographs. She teaches at the New School and NYU.