Joan Linder: Belly Installation Video

Rivalry Projects is thrilled to present Joan Linder: Belly. The exhibition, her first with the gallery, will be on view from January 12 - February 23, 2024.

Belly includes monumental and intimately sized oil paintings, produced between 1999 - 2001, of fleshy male bellies. Depicted standing proud, timid, or bent over in positions of vulnerability, Linder renders the figures as soft, dimpled, and imperfect against washy pastel colored backgrounds — a feminine counter to the hyper-masculine.

This body of work provides a glimpse into the power structures and gender politics of the late 1990s, in the art world and beyond. At the time of production, Linder worked in midtown Manhattan as a curator for a significant corporate art collection. Ensconced in this culture, she was interested in the daily manifestation of power in corporate America and the art world. This led to a series of paintings of men and machines, exploring tropes of masculinity, and aimed at poking and prodding embodiments of power. 

Filmed by Gill Stanley, January 2024