Artists: Clarina BEZZOLA, Petra BUCHEGGER, Mehmet EMIR, Leslie DE MELO, Sissi FARASSAT, Matthias HERRMANN, Anna JERMOLAEWA, Birgit JÜRGENSSEN, Jakob Lena KNEBL / Hans SCHEIRL, Evangelia KRANIOTI, Maria LASSNIG, Kalup LINZY, MUNTEAN/ROSENBLUM, Rashaad NEWSOME, Maria PETSCHNIG, Lisl PONGER, Katarina SCHMIDL, Cindy SHERMAN

The Austrian Cultural Forum New York and MUSA Vienna are proud to present Beauty Contest, an exhibition featuring works by 20 internationally acclaimed and emerging artists who reflect critically on contemporary global society’s obsession and fascination with physical appearance. Following its run at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, the exhibition will then travel to Vienna in February 2012 where it will be shown in the galleries of MUSA Vienna.

Beauty Contest deals with one of the most trivial everyday experiences: the daily encounter with human beauty and its social construction. A perennial anthropologic subject dating back to the writings of ancient Greek philosophers the exhibition will present critical viewpoints of some of the most antiquated notions of universal beauty. Evidence from the sexual revolution and feminism, as well as the gay, lesbian and transgender movements have eroded clear definitions of who and what is beautiful – and who and what is not. Through their artworks the artists examine the emancipation of hidden structures of repression toward gender, race, and age.

The artworks, which include videos, paintings, sculptures, installations, and performance art, are drawn from the self-examination, self-perception, and self-definition of the individual artists, many of whom are influenced by female avant-garde artists such as Austrian artist Maria Lassnig and New York based Cindy Sherman.

Beauty Contest is curated by Andreas Stadler, Berthold Ecker, and Claude Grunitzky, with assistance from Roland Fink and Natascha Boojar.

A series of talks will be organized as part of the Walls and Bridges Season 3 (www.wallsandbridges.net)

A performance by Maria Petschnig is being organized in conjunction with Performa 11 (www.performa-arts.org)

A performance by Clarina Bezzola will take place on September 21st, in collaboration with Times Square Alliance. > More information

The Opening Reception will be preceded by an artist talk at 5PM. For tickets and information, please click >> here.