Soma Grossa, Curated by Anna Mirzayan

November 17, 2022 – January 14, 2023

About the Exhibition:

SOMA GROSSA is a multi-media survey of painting, installation, soft sculpture, video, jewelry and photography by fat artists explicitly making work about fatness. Rather than engage in the targeted joyful representation of small to mid-fat bodies popular in the ‘body positivity movement,’ this exhibition critiques the overwhelming metaphysical censorship of fat lives in a world that attempts to will them out of existence or consume them as entertainment. The works in this show challenge viewers’ to consider their own histories with anti-fat attitudes, while simultaneously engaging in the radical act of creating communities between fat people.

Exhibiting artists include Danielle Attoe, Ren Buchness, Elisha Cox, Jesse Egner, Amanda Kleinhans, Sophie Pearson, Néstor Daniel Pérez-Molière, Ashley Ramos, Katie Rauth, and Zoë Schneider.

Press:

Fat. – Dani Lamorte. Bunker Review, Dec 6
New art exhibition tackles anti-fat bias – Lauren Davidson. PublicSource, Nov 18
Pittsburgh exhibit centers fat artists confronting bias – Bill O’Driscoll. WESA, Nov 16
Art shows to leave the house for this November – Dazed, Nov 9
Why Does the Art World Hate Fat People? – Anna Mirzayan. Hyperallergic, Oct 18

About the curator:

Anna Mirzayan is a freelance arts writer, poet, researcher, editor; she holds a PhD in Theory and Criticism. Her research exists at the intersection of labor studies, contemporary art and photography, and surveillance. She is currently based in Pittsburgh, where she is the editor-in-chief of the Bunker Review and Operations Coordinator at Bunker Projects. Her poetry chapbook, Donkey-girl and Other Hybrids, was published in 2021 by Really Serious Literature. Her article, “Why Does the Art World Hate Fat People?,” about her experience curating Soma Grossa, was published in Hyperallergic in 2022.