Riva Lehrer
Bio
Riva Lehrer is an artist, author, and university instructor. She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1958. Her work tends to feature individuals who's bodies and/or identities have been stigmatized. Artwork by Lehrer has been displayed in the National Portrait Gallery, at the United Nations, in the National Museum of Women in the Arts, at Haverford College, and at many other prominent museums and universities. Lehrer teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and in the Department of Medical Humanities at North Western University.
(All information from Riva Lehrer's website)
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Image Descriptions
"66 Degrees" Description: This acrylic painting centers on a woman with her back to the viewer. She has her arms stretched out behind her. Her hair is cut short and is a reddish-brown with a tuft of grey framing her face. She is submerged in dark-green water up to her waist. Along the top quarter of the image are shrubs and small tree branches. The woman is naked on the top part of her body, though a gold sequined dress remains secured on her hips. One of the arms of the dress floats atop the water to the woman's left while the other arm of the dress has wrapped itself over the woman's bicep. She wears a silver ring on her left index finger. The woman has long scars running down her back.
"Sheri/Dragon" Description: The artist used grey charcoal to draw a woman on her hands and knees, arms and legs bent as if she is crawling on the floor. The woman is mostly naked, though she wears a green dragon costume with yellow and red details that covers her stomach and groin area and extends above her head. The costume is attached to her shoulders with leather straps. Attached to the dragon's body are two delicately drawn grey wings. The effect of the artist's use of color on only the dragon's body makes the dragon more prominent. The green of the dragon's body is see-through enabling the viewer to see theoutline of the woman's body and the rib bones of the dragon.
"Zoom Portraits: Alice Wong" Description: The bulk of this drawing is made to look like a screenshot on a computer. The window that is open features a colored drawing of a woman in a black and white jacket. She is looking straight at the camera. Over her nose is a mask for a BiPAP machine. Under her mask her lips are bright red. In the woman's background is a wall, a door jam, three framed photos haging on the wall, and more tubing for her BiPAP machine, all sketched in grey pencil. On either side of the dominant window is what appears to be a screensaver of the ocean. Along the right side of the image is a column of computer icons. Behind the part of the drawing that looks like the screen of a computer are handwritten notes.