Exhibition Dates: March 5 – April 23, 2016
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 5 from 6–8 pm
Gallery Location: 432 Julia Street, New Orleans, LA 70130
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 am–5 pm
Contact Info: 504.522.1999; arthurrogergallery.com

The Arthur Roger Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of videos by Cheryl Donegan. The exhibition will be on view in the Arthur Roger Gallery New Media Space, located at 432 Julia Street, from March 5 – April 23, 2016. The gallery will host an opening reception on Saturday, March 5 from 6-8 pm.

Cheryl Donegan is an American conceptual artist especially known for her video works that address issues of art politics, particularly the clichés of the female body. At the invitation of Jim Richard, Donegan presents two videos, Head (1993) and Lieder (2000), both exercises in role-playing and exposure. Her work, which incorporates both traditional and contemporary video elements, has been described as, “direct, irreverent, and infused with an ironic eroticism.”

In Head, Donegan takes in milk to her mouth as it spurts from a hole in a plastic jug. As her mouth fills, she plugs the hole with her thumb and slides up to let the liquid trickle from her lips back into the top of the bottle. She repeats this, occasionally swallowing, until the liquid is fully drained. She then finishes by seductively licking the bottle, concentrating on the area surrounding the hole.

In Lieder, a visibly pregnant Donegan sits garbed in a black garbage bag with her head wrapped in a black plastic shopping bag. Pink tape tightly binds both bags – part bondage, part fashion accessory. Mechanized and impersonal, she rotates between left profile and right while the chair emits a menacing squeal. Bright paint-covered gobs reminiscent of spitballs are hurled at her from off-screen, hitting her and the wall behind. For short stretches, the recurring plastic jug appears in the form of a headdress, leaking a milky substance, which the artist periodically wipes from her neck and chest with a paper towel. It ends with Donegan frantically pulling at the tape around her head before yielding, her labored breathing visible as she faces the camera anonymously.

Cheryl Donegan received a B.F.A. in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design and an M.F.A. from Hunter College. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in museums, galleries, and festivals including, in New York, at The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA PS1, the Guggenheim Museum Soho, the 1995 Biennial Exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art and New York Film and Video Festival; and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; 1993 Venice Biennale; Galerie Rizzo, Paris; the Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, France; and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. She currently lives and works in New York City.