Bonnie Lautenberg, Lady Liberty: Tears of Roe, 2022.
The Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU kicks off Art Basel Season in Miami Beach with the premiere of the new exhibition Lady Liberty: A Bonnie Lautenberg Retrospective. The new solo museum show, open November 16 through March 26, celebrates powerful images of women from two decades of art by Lautenberg. Spanning her multiple series of photography and conceptual art, the women in these works are admired by Lautenberg for their spirit of freedom.
The exhibition includes her portrayals of the Statue of Liberty confronting some of today’s most challenging issues. In response to the recent Supreme Court vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade, Lautenberg created Tears of Roe – a large-scale lightbox with tears running down the Statue of Liberty’s cheeks and the word Roe added to her crown, lamenting the current challenges to women’s freedoms making headlines today.
“I hope that grandmothers, mothers, daughters and granddaughters look upon Tears of Roe as a reminder of the freedom of choice women had for 50 years,” adds Lautenberg.
Detail from ‘Wanted,’ 2022.
Another new work by Lautenberg is titled Wanted, honoring the historical icon Harriet Tubman who bravely led enslaved Black people to freedom in the 1800s without ever getting caught.
This diptych features one of the notorious “Wanted” posters from that era that slave owners used in the 1800s to try to capture Tubman. Lautenberg juxtaposes historic images of the American abolitionist next to actress Cynthia Erivo who portrayed the freedom fighter in the 2019 film Harriet. In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the movement for women’s suffrage.
‘Even Lady Liberty Lost Some of Her Freedoms in 2020,’ 2020.
“Our museum is thrilled to premiere this retrospective of Bonnie Lautenberg’s images of women shining a light on liberty,” says Susan Gladstone Pasternack, the Executive Director of the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. “In capturing the independent spark of these women through her art, Bonnie Lautenberg reminds us we should never take our freedoms for granted.”
Lady Liberty: A Bonnie Lautenberg Retrospective is curated by Jacqueline Goldstein and on display November 16 through March 26.
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