Angela Grossman at The Queer Festival

Angela Grossman's art is making an appearance at The Queer Festival this year from June 21 - June 29 2016. This year's festival titled "Drama Queer: seducing social change" explores emotion as a means of political practice. Featured in articles from the Westender and Queer Arts Festival, Grossman's work, exploring sensual feminism and erotica, challenges gender identity through her collages and multi media pieces.


Check out what Angela Grossman had to say about her work in the Westender below:

"Meanwhile, Angela Grossmann came to Drama Queer because of Lukacs, whom she counts as a dear friend from their time together at Emily Carr. Grossmann had recently done a show based in gender identity, erotica and feminism, and Lukacs brought Katz by her studio in Gastown to look at the work.

A Vancouverite by way of London, the internationally adored collage and mixed media artist explains that while she has no direct ties to the Queer Arts Festival or LGBTQ community, their world views seem to often overlap.

“I’m not part of the queer community but I was extremely involved with others who are. [And] my work seems to be speaking to it,” she muses, looking around her charmingly disheveled workspace. “The work very clearly speaks to the issues that [the festival] is interested in addressing.”

For the show, Katz selected a series of gender-bending collages that weave male and female identity together, as well as a number of vintage postcards, modified through Grossmann’s distinct gestural process to tell a subversively sensual new story.Grossmann first caught the attention of the art world as a student, being named one of the Vancouver Art Gallery’s infamous “Young Romantics” in 1985 alongside Lukacs, Graham Gillmore and Derek Root. Twenty years later, students from 11 of the UK’s leading art schools voted her onto a list of their 100 most influential and inspirational artists.

Angela Grossman with a selection of postcards from the upcoming show - Dan Toulgoet photo

“There’s all kinds of different ways to make art, and a lot of the work I love isn’t necessarily sensual, but my particular thing is fairly sensual,” says Grossmann. “Just because a work is sensual, or about sensuality, doesn’t mean that it’s not thoughtful and possibly intelligent. And I’ve always been extremely clear when I teach that those things aren’t mutually exclusive.

“I am now very out there about the sensuality in my work,” she continues, “which allows me to make the statements that I do, which allows me to be in the Queer Art show. Because it’s about other ways of thinking and other ways of expressing that.”

And while she debates the accuracy of calling her an activist (“Activism means that by doing your activity you’re causing an effect, and [...] honestly I spend my days alone in a room.”), she admits with a hearty smile that, if it is so, she comes by it naturally.

“I think art is activism, and making art is somewhat a political act. I come from a very political family, so it was never a question. It’s brewed in me, dyed in my wool,” she says, with a laugh. “I don’t even think about it, really. I’m sure there are some conservative artists out there [...],” she pauses to think, “but I’m not sure I would consider that art.” "

Click here to read the rest of the article in the Westender!

Click here to read the rest of the article for Drama Queer!