An Inside Look at “This Harmless but Horrible Sensation”
The Julio Fine Arts Gallery is proud to welcome our artist in residence, Beth Yashnyk. Yashnyk is an interdisciplinary visual artist living and working in Baltimore city. She earned a BFA from the State University of New York at New Paltz where she specialized in printmaking. She then went on to get an MFA in Multidisciplinary Fine Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Yashnyk is a multimedia artist and educator whose work seeks to analyze the physical body as it intersects and relates to ideas of gender, perception, sexuality, and psychology.
In her artist statement, Beth asked the question, “Is a glitch really a mistake?” Through creating and exploring 3-dimensional scans of her body and translating them into layers of laser cuts and animations, she thought about her physical presence and body in a new way. In the exhibition, This Harmless but Horrible Sensation Yashnyk constructed and deconstructed central and ungendered parts of her body to take a closer look at the understandings of gender identity. In this past exhibition, Yashnyk thought about what parts of her body make her appear feminine through initial perception and what parts do not. She considered how we’re read by others through external features. Through her work, Yashnyk thought about queerness as a glitch in our modern world while celebrating its contextualization and element of identity.
In her artist talk, Beth Yashnyk discussed Covid-19 & virtual spaces as a new way of existing in the world. She noticed that change occurred where we existed socially. As presence became limited, she began thinking about the different ways the body exists. When our world was distilled down to flat, 2-dimensional computer screens, she created artwork by digitally layering colors and objects to mimic the outside world through animation. She also continued to think about body parts and expanded them in non-representational ways. This Harmless but Horrible Sensation allowed Yashnyk to explore and celebrate her own body and gender identity through the creation and layering of colorful laser cut body parts, paintings, and objects.
Missed the talk?
To learn more about the Gallery’s programs, current and past exhibitions visit julioartgallery.com or call 410-617-2799. Follow us on social media @JulioArtGallery for updates!