REVIEW: Riva Lehrer, “The Monster Studio” at Zolla/Lieberman Gallery
Installation view of Riva Lehrer: The Monster Studio at Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago.
REVIEW
Riva Lehrer, The Monster Studio
MCA Chicago
325 W. Huron St.
Chicago IL 60654
Sept. 6-Oct. 12, 2024
By Margo Santiago
I could spend days wondering if I should’ve chosen differently or how I could've said it another way filling myself with dread as those thoughts pick me apart. Could I imagine confronting myself in front of an audience while trying to paint or draw that feeling? Gods, no. In The Monster Studio, Riva Lehrer invites authors, performers, podcasters, a sculptor, art critic and theorist to do just that. To think of themselves as agents of change, how they are disruptors in the world and to see themselves as “actors rather than acted upon.” Collaborators join Lehrer in a smaller, private recreation of her studio for a public conversation on the idea of the monster.
Furthering the collaborative aspect, audience members are welcomed to share their thoughts and questions in their own way disrupting the flow and find themselves a voice in what would otherwise be a private conversation. Bringing a subject together with the audience to explore some shared feelings practices a communal bonding that I feel continues to turn Lehrer’s practice inside-out. At the end of their sessions, the pieces are hung in the front of the gallery for everyone to come and enjoy.
Riva Lehrer at work in her studio on images from her Buffy the Vampire Slayer series.
This exhibition is accompanied by a selection of Lehrer’s decade long project, The Risk Portraits which follows her desire of understanding embodiment. Both dedicate space to monsterhood as her subjects have self-defined as monsters. Also included are her portraits from the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. These are some of my favorites as I spent my childhood watching episodes late at night with my mom living for what creature Buffy was going to kick the ass of. Yes, there are monsters in this exhibit that feature right alongside the subject's own interpretations giving viewers a chance to see what differentiates the typical monster from our own ideas.
In her statement Lehrer desires to push past the classic idea of a monster, to explore all a monster is capable of being such as “an avatar of ferocity and drive.” In this six week project collaborators look closely at the ripples they’re choices create by reflecting on them and understanding the space they take up in doing so. It is scary enough to share how you view yourself, how you feel in your fear; making it tangible can be the shadow that comes to tower over you. Although the focus is the monster and how one sees themselves as such, Lehrer says that “a monster might not be figurative at all, but could be a dot, a color, a pile of torn paper, a rain of teeth.” Collaborators can examine their own monstrous form by stretching the definition since it isn’t always Frankenstein or the thing hiding underneath your bed. Rather it can be the way your words impact someone else or the accumulation of anxiety in your shoulders and back.
Riva Lehrer, The Risk Pictures: David Mitchell, charcoal and colored pencil on paper, 27 x 34 1/4 inches, framed.
Lehrer’s work is inspired by the “socially challenged body." She is best known for representations of people whose physical embodiment, sexuality, or gender identity have long been stigmatized” as written in her artist bio. The Monster Studio expands on this as collaborators sit down to talk about the way their actions shape them whether they be risks taken or moments celebrated. I find Lehrer’s work to be a reminder to perform acts of love for ourselves as we make steps towards achieving our dreams of change.
The Monster Studio intimately dissects the self by widening the lens with which one discovers who they are as a disruptor and what that means. The self they present to the world that makes up a living, breathing creature who desires to make a change in the spaces they occupy. Her work is a practice in empathy and I am inspired by Lehrer’s ability to breathe softness into the horror of our emotions. How she is carving out space to bring people together out of the disembodiment of those feelings. Lehrer is a conduit allowing us to take part in the discovery of the self as we open up, become vulnerable in our bodies and our communities all while redefining the word monster.
Rive Lehrer, The Risk Pictures: Mutual Mirror / Portrait of Stephanie Kielb, 2024, mixed media, 46 x 33 in.
The Monster Studio will run in its final weeks until the 12th of October at the Zolla/Lieberman gallery in the River North neighborhood. Viewers can enjoy the public portrait studio during the day at selected times on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of October with Michael Rakowitz, Jill H. Casis, and Anna Campbell. Each collaborator takes part in more than one session so please check out Zolla/Lieberman gallery to find a time that works for you.
Margo Santiago is a writer and artist living in Chicago.
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