Delve into the work of over 40 contemporary artists from across the gender spectrum.

Explore gender stereotypes, self-representation and shapeshifting through fashion in artworks made in the last ten years in a wide range of media, including painting, sculpture, photography and video.   

Challenge your ideas around race, class, objectification, pleasure or desire. Discover strategies of resilience, empowerment, kinship and community building.   

Contested Bodies understands that gender is socially constructed and performed. It is not an innate aspect of someone’s identity. The exhibition attempts to create a space where each artist has the freedom and power to perform gender in a way that feels right to them. The show also aims to drop gender, sexual and racial hierarchies altogether in order to recognise every person’s humanity.    

All the artworks in the exhibition are from the Marcelle Joseph and GIRLPOWER Collections and the show is co-curated by independent curator and collector Marcelle Joseph and Dr Laura Claveria, Exhibitions Curator at The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery.