Artists Nadia Lee Cohen and Martine Syms have been added to Jeffrey Deitch's upcoming art exhibition.
The "It Smells Like Girl" exhibition, opening on September 6, 2025, at Jeffrey Deitch gallery, delves into the historical concept of female hysteria as a cultural signal. Instead of viewing it as a medical pathology, the exhibition redefines hysteria as a social construct used to stigmatize women.
The show, a joint effort between Jeffrey Deitch and Company Gallery, features the works of thirty artists, including Nadia Lee Cohen, Martine Syms, and Juliana Huxtable. These artists employ diverse artistic methods such as painting, video, sculpture, performances, screenings, and installations to create a "sensorial vocabulary of refusal." This approach emphasizes sensation, mood, and unease over clear narratives or pathology.
Juliana Huxtable's figures in the exhibition are elongated and lacquered like icons, while Martine Syms' contributions include video vignettes carved from everyday social performance. Nadia Lee Cohen's photographs are lacquered in technicolor varnish, adding a vibrant and surreal touch to the exhibition.
The exhibition's wall text quotes nineteenth-century treatises opposite contemporary manifestos, inviting visitors to reflect on the evolution of societal attitudes towards women's emotions and experiences. The show encourages unhurried attention, suggesting that reserving an afternoon for the exhibition would be rewarding.
Another gallery in the exhibition reverberates with amplified breathing, creating an immersive and unsettling atmosphere. Another is perfumed with artificial rose, staining the air in faint disquiet. These elements serve to heighten the sensory experience and underscore the exhibition's themes.
The "It Smells Like Girl" exhibition positions hysteria as a strategy rather than a symptom, challenging traditional narratives and offering a powerful form of expression and resistance against the stigmatization of women's lived experiences. The show invites visitors to question and unravel sexism, using multidisciplinary contemporary art to provoke reflection on gender, emotion, and social control.
Don't miss this thought-provoking exhibition, on view from September 6 through November 1, 2025, at Jeffrey Deitch, 925 North Orange Drive.
[1] Information sourced from press materials provided by the exhibition organisers.
The "It Smells Like Girl" exhibition, opening on September 6, 2025, at Jeffrey Deitch gallery, offers a unique blend of entertainment and enlightenment as it delves into the historical concept of female hysteria, redefining it as a social construct used to stigmatize women. Featuring the works of thirty artists, the show invites visitors to question and unravel sexism, using multidisciplinary contemporary art to provoke reflection on gender, emotion, and social control.
