SLEEPING BEAUTY
2017 - 2018
“They keep their own counsel. We can tell they do by the gaze that issues from every woman and girl in Lydia Panas’
’Sleeping Beauty’ series. This gaze confronts us. It is not diffident, or furtive, not dainty or shrinking. It is stone solid in
its self-awareness and is absent of request or expectation. No matter where we enter this exhibition, we are seen, and
coming to recognize the significance of being seen we might begin to understand that for a woman to truly have agency
in this historical moment, her eyes have to be open… The exhibition title, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, is really an artful reversal.”
Seph Rodney, Editor, Hyperallergic
”None of the women in Lydia Panas’ Sleeping Beauty' photography exhibit on view at the Baker Center for the Arts
at Muhlenberg College are sleeping. That clever negation of title is intentional. Despite their reclining poses,
her subjects seem very much awake, as conscious of being gazed at as we are of gazing at them. The
viewer becomes not a voyeur, but a participant, making this exhibit eerily interactive.”
Steve Siegel, Morning Call
Link to Monograph
http://www.lydiapanas.com/sleeping-beauty-monograph
In this decidedly feminist body of work, Panas includes a selection of new photographic and video works,
continuing her decades long and wide ranging exploration of portraiture. Sleeping Beauty departs from her previous
projects in that subjects seem to actively collaborate in the creation of their images. Individuals confront the viewer, meeting
the glare of the camera with a penetrating stare. Each visage bears a lifetime of experiences, while embodying the
resilience and indomitable spirit we’ve come to associate with the #metoo movement. Each woman, a strong,
unintimidated individual, refusing to be denied agency or personhood.
Paul Nicholson, Gallery Director, Martin Art Gallery
https://loeildelaphotographie.com/en/lydia-panas-
February 22, 2019
Click on the links for more videos
http://printcenter.org/94th/panas/
http://www.lydiapanas.com/new-page-1
30 x 30”
Editions of 5
