All at Once
Left: Kathryn Geismar, detail from Olympia Redux; right: Dorian Keeffe, detail from Transfigure, oil on canvas
On view September 21 - November 15, 2024
Sat 9/28, 4-6 pm: Opening reception
Sat 10/19, 4-6 pm: Becoming - a conversation with the artists
13FOREST Gallery is pleased to present All at Once, featuring new work by Kathryn Geismar and Dorian Keeffe.
In All at Once, Geismar and Keeffe engage in deeply personal reflections on identity through the lens of gender transition. Though the process of self-discovery is universal, acknowledging and realizing a trans identity is a subset of that experience that develops in a uniquely public and political way. Through Geismar and Keeffe we witness gender transition from the dual perspectives of an outsider, Geismar, whose child has been transitioning for several years, and an insider, Keeffe, who has recently begun their own journey as a transmasc person. With vulnerability and honesty Geismar and Keeffe lay bare the intricacies of gender presentation and embrace the transience of identity.
Geismar’s latest series of paintings capture fragments of faces as they peer into or edge out of the composition. Against a simple color field, Geismar’s subject, her adult child Sam, is both assertive and inscrutable. Throughout Sam’s process of gender exploration, Geismar embarks on a parallel journey of reckoning with her own identity as a mother and with her relationship to Sam as she grows into her changing identity. Playing with temporality, Geismar layers translucent portraits of herself at different ages and of Sam at different moments of identification. Referencing Sargent’s Madame X and Manet’s Olympia, Geismar blends Sam’s appearance with elements of art history, further disrupting linear constructions of identity. Her subjects refuse to materialize fully; leaving portions of the composition sketchy, abstract, or hazily rendered, Geismar visualizes the liminality of identity.
Drawing heavily from mythology and art history, Keeffe situates the experience of transition within familiar narratives, contextualizing this challenging process and making it legible to observers. Through self-portraits as Saint Sebastian, Medusa and Jesus being examined by Saint Thomas, Keeffe engages the pain, fear and doubt that accompany breaking away from gendered societal expectations. Keeffe’s figures, rendered with soft naturalism, are integrated with the style and iconography of American traditional tattoos, hinting at the complexities of identity but never defining it. Alongside self-portraiture, Keeffe includes portraits of friends who have supported their transition. Here Keeffe contradicts visual references to American Gothic and 18th century wedding portraits by infusing warmth and personal tributes into those staid compositions, celebrating the encouragement offered by loving friendships. By positioning these portraits within a wider historical and mythical context, Keeffe brings their trans experience into conversation with collective questions of self-discovery.
The portraits in All at Once facilitate moments of recognition as two artists become reacquainted with themselves and their loved ones. Now that Geismar’s child Sam is grown and embodies a different gender expression from the one she was raised with, Geismar works to understand Sam and her own role as a mother through nuanced, affecting portraits. Keeffe reckons with their own reflection through provocative self-portraits that evoke the struggle to recognize oneself throughout the painful yet liberating moments of coming out and transitioning. While their work is profoundly personal and intimate, Geismar and Keeffe provide points of commonality that speak to the tremendously human pursuit of knowing oneself.
Preview All at Once
About the Artists
Kathryn Geismar is an artist and psychologist whose work explores the complex, transitional nature of identity. She is the recipient of two Mass Cultural Council Visual Art Fellowship Grants, residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and the Foundation House, and numerous awards. Her work has been featured in the New Talent/New England show at the St. Botolph Club in Boston, the Danforth Museum in Framingham, MA, the Bristol Art Museum in Rhode Island, and was featured in Studio Visit magazine. She is a member of The Crit Lab, The Yellow Chair Salon, and Pell Lucy Artists. For the past four years, Geismar has been painting and drawing her oldest child, who is transgender, as a way to explore the cultural expectations that constrain them both.
Dorian Keeffe is a painter and mixed media artist based in Somerville, Massachusetts. They received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2018. Keeffe grew up in central Massachusetts and has been pursuing art from a young age. They were inspired to seek an education in painting by their late grandfather, Joseph Keeffe, an artist based in Arlington, MA. Through portraiture, they explore identity, invoking art historical and mythological motifs to express personal experiences. As a transmasc person, Keeffe hopes to express their often underrepresented perspective and experiences. Their works seek not only to retell familiar stories, but also to share personal stories about their own life.