Enjoy a complimentary cup of Elixr coffee and join Tyler PhD candidate, Erin Riley-Lopez for an intimate discussion about the use of roleplay in Tag: Proposals on Queer Play and the Ways Forward.

Roleplay in contemporary art has been a particularly effective strategy employed by artists for generations to investigate notions of gender—from interrogating the male/female binary to creating entirely new modes of identification. Playful and fun while at the same time giving it thoughtful consideration, artists from 70s feminisms to today’s queer cultures utilize role play and dress up to question the construction of gender by performing their identities. This conversation will compare and contrast the work of feminist artists from the 1970s to artists in Tag: Proposals on Queer Play and the Ways Forward to consider how gender figures into today’s society. Who we are and the roles we play can have many parts. Our “selves” can run the gender spectrum and one fixed notion of identity does not necessarily determine who we are.

This event is free and open to the public; register here.

Erin Riley-Lopez is a first-year PhD student in art history at Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. Her specialty is in contemporary art with a particular focus on feminism, gender, and identity. She was the Curator of the Freedman Gallery at Albright College in Reading, PA, from 2012 through 2017, where she also taught courses in art history and arts administration and served on the Design Oversight Committee. From 2005 through 2009 she served as a curator at The Bronx Museum of the Arts, where she organized collection-based and annual Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) exhibitions. Independently curated exhibitions have appeared at A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; the Bronx River Art Center, NY; Cuchifritos, New York; The Center for Worker Education, CUNY, New York; and The Center for Book Arts, New York. Riley-Lopez’s articles and reviews have appeared in publications and blogs both online and in print. She has contributed catalogue essays to The Joan Mitchell Foundation and The Center for Book Arts in New York. She serves on the Exhibitions Committee of The Center for Book Arts. Riley-Lopez received her M.A. from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College.