CONTACT

malena.barnhart@gmail.com

About

Malena Barnhart is a feminist artist who makes art from repurposed cultural materials. She works with a variety of found items and footage including children’s stickers, YouTube videos, and party decorations. Her work centers around the process of enculturation and its role in perpetuating harmful gender norms. Barnhart holds an MFA in Photography from Arizona State University and a BA in studio art from the University of Maryland. She has exhibited extensively throughout Arizona at venues such as the Tucson Museum of Art and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. Her work has also been shown nationally and internationally in locations including Chicago, New York, Washington DC, Portland, San Francisco, Finland, Italy, Israel and London. She has received many awards including a Carmody Foundation grant, the John Dorsey Prize for Outstanding Curatorial Practice and the Sadat Art for Peace Award. Her work resides in Northlight Gallery’s permanent collection, the special collections at Columbia University Library, and the personal collection of Madeleine Albright. Her work can be viewed here or on Instagram at @malenabarnhart.

Statement

From the time we are children, everything we consume reinforces what is expected of us and what we can expect from the world. The process of enculturation maintains and perpetuates gender norms. Children spend their time learning the rules and expectations of the culture they are born into. They observe their surroundings to gain information about their place in it. Increasingly, this process occurs via forms of mass media including television, consumer products and the Internet; it also continues into adulthood. We learn our culture from what we consume, whether one is consuming princess toys, video games, or Pinterest wedding boards.

 I take cultural materials and repurpose them. I create videos, installations and 2-D works from mass culture detritus including YouTube videos, children’s stickers and teen posters. In reconfiguring these materials and creating new forms, I question the intended messaging and subvert the original purpose.