The Exhibitionists present: Raw Material | A Photo Essay

June 1 - June 7

“The Exhibitionists take AWE” is currently on display at Art Windsor Essex, until October 2026, showcasing work from the past decade

For one week only

The Exhibitionists present: Raw Material

a photo essay 

ACWR

June 1-7th

Reception: Saturday June 6th, 6-9pm 

Artist Statement

The Exhibitionists began, as I remember it, around 2016—when Rebecca and Sandie met at Judy’s house with a simple idea: to draw and model for each other.

We met on Wednesdays. Lunch first, then modeling. I would go first, just to get it over with—to quiet that initial feeling of exposure before it could grow too loud.

We invited others to join us. Some did. Others immediately refused: “You’re not seeing me exposed.”

The question always came up—why are we doing this?

The answers were never complicated. We wanted to be present. To work without the pressure of perfection. To exist in bodies that are not idealized, not staged, not filtered by expectation.

What is a “perfect” body, anyway?

We are surrounded by images—in film, in art, in media—shaped so often by the male gaze. This was something else. A space to look, and to be seen, on our own terms.

For us, it was also about practice. Not getting rusty. Continuing to stretch our artistic muscles.

At first, the photographs were simple documentation—records of us drawing each other. But over time, something shifted. The camera became part of the process. We began composing, staging, exploring. Drawing from the photographs, and letting the photographs stand on their own.

They started to reveal the depth of what we had stepped into.

This exhibition shares that experience—between ourselves and those who chose to join us. The work spans from 2016 to 2020, before Judy moved west, before COVID, before everything changed.

No masks. No sense of risk. Just a kind of freedom.

These images are the Exhibitionists—exposed, simple, and intentionally composed. They bring forward a reality that resists perfection: that women hold power in their bodies at every age, in every condition.

Through illness, injury, and the passing of time itself, that power remains.

Artspeak Gallery

1942 Wyandotte Street E
Windsor, N8Y1E4
Phone: 5199916350

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