HOMEGIRLS VS. MEGABABES:
WORKS BY AMANDA PAYNE AND LOUISE LEONG

FRIDAY, APRIL 5 2019 @ LITTLE GIANT COLLECTIVE
115 RIVER ST SOUTH
SANTA CRUZ, CA 95060
6PM-9PM

LIVE SCREENPRINTING - COLD BEER - HOT ART
This event is wheelchair accessible: ramp to the right of JC Nails

Homegirls vs. Megababes

A joint exhibit of art by Amanda Payne and Louise Leong featuring screenprints and ink illustrations of women in sensuous repose, solitary, in their squad, and ready to kick your ass. Whose team are you on?

Join us for the opening reception, Friday April 5th from 6pm-9pm at the Little Giant Collective studio. We will be live screenprinting Homegirls and Megababes paper pennants to show off your team of choice. BYO shirts and fabric to print on if you'd like!

Louise Leong:
The title of this show came from a daydream I had inspired by the movie A League of Their Own of two competing women's baseball teams called the Homegirls and the Megababes. Both teams were full of women that I couldn't tell if I wanted to be or be with (a timeless queer dilemma). The big twist was that the same women played on both teams (ha-ha).

My work for this show includes one of my recurring woman characters who has embodied both the casual badass-ness and unabashed sexiness of the "homegirl" and "megababe" type to me. My images also referenced other women who embodied these qualities including Chinese-American nightclub performers from the 1940's, Hong Kong actresses from the 1960's and 1980's, the musicians La Luz and the Ronettes, and of course the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League of the 1940's.

Follow @louleo_ for more art and minutiae 

Amanda Payne:
Making art featuring attractive naked ladies with full manes of luscious hair is a very easy thing to do. The nude female form has been celebrated throughout the ages, lounging about, eating fruit, ignoring cherubs.

These women, from Venus to Salomé, were depicted as soft and delicate, eyes cast away. Despite goddesses, warriors, or noble ladies, they all lack agency over their bodies as could easily be viewed as sexual objects.

As time went on, with the invention of photography, nudity for the sake of readily available erotica became more prevalent. From the run of the mill nudie shots to highly specialized fetishism, erotic photography allowed women the opportunity to simultaneously be admired for their form, admonished for being naked, and judged for making the choice to do so.

My goal is to give agency to the naked. Often looking you in the eye, asking you to enjoy, respect, and possibly even find a piece of yourself, in size, shape, or attitude. Some of my proudest moments as an artist are when ladies take a print because the woman in the piece felt like it was a reflection of themselves. 

You can find more of Amanda’s work on Instagram.
@_kupferdach_ for paintings
@amanda_payne for tattoos
@thegettysburgundress for performance