Objects of Agency is a 52 week long virtual exhibition, through 2023. The exhibition addresses the health care crisis which has recently culminated in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization and stripped thousands of people of the right to bodily autonomy.

The United States has the worst maternal mortality rate among other similarly developed countries. According to the University of Colorado, due to the Dobbs decision, maternal mortality rates are projected to go up 14%. For women of color, it is 20%. Simply due to women’s health care becoming more restrictive and less accessible.

At the time this call for art was written, when “abortion” was typed into a Google search, the first page result was a misleading website filled with fear slogans and misinformation to prevent women from seeking necessary and viable health care options. A recent research study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate showed that in many right wing states, 1/10 Google search results for abortion services lead to anti-abortion fake clinics. And when abortion was typed into Instagram, the first hashtag was #abortionisevil. Due to activists, advocates, artists, and scientists this scale is tipping to provide accessible, accurate, and viable healthcare information.

So, what can we do to continue the fight for abortion rights? How can we use our creative voices to counteract misinformation and false advertising and provide viable discourse and inspiration?

At Hera Gallery, we invited you to cry, rage, and make art. We invited you to connect with others through creative expression in hopes that it would bring a sense of insight, or deep feeling, beauty, education, perseverance, protest, connection and/or community. Culminating in the virtual exhibition Objects of Agency, we bring you 52 selections of work from artists across the country.

Each week, Hera Gallery will choose one featured artist and artwork from the exhibition to represent the tribulations and inspirations of the current state of women’s health care in America. Featured artists will be posted on all social media accounts.

Objects of Agency aims to stimulate, educate, and encourage abortion care. It aims to challenge the anti-abortion campaigns and false information which dominate the internet. It aims to provide access to factual information and ultimately to create a platform and a network to share the voices, choices, and stories of all women and female identifying persons.

Gallery commission of sold works will be donated to Planned Parenthood.

Stay tuned for more information on upcoming special events and programming!

Ellen Hochberg

Lynne Rosenberg

Alcy Hart

Gigi Salij

Jenny Balisle

Mary Kostman

Read more in the independent ri

Arani Halder

People, Period

Mixed Media

4.5" x 4.5" x 0.5"

2019

People, Period. is a book that is tailored to women of the Indian Peninsula and is aimed at addressing the stigma surrounding menstruation in South Asia, while also raising awareness on safe menstrual health. It contains anecdotes from the people of the peninsula, age old remedies for menstrual health issues, suggested sustainable menstrual products, Hindu myths surrounding the process and the science behind menstruation. The book is meant to aid conversation and allow people to be able to explain menstruation to their children and loved ones. In a time where bodily autonomy and agency are being limited and challenged for people who menstruate and can give birth, People, Period. aims to give back a small aspect of one’s right over their body.

Cheryl Hazelton

Lexi Arrietta

Christina M Dietz

Rosa Naparstek

Donnal Poppe

Debra Disman

"Excavation of the Interior”

12" x 28" x 12.5"

$950.00

2021

Inspired by the form of the book, my work traverses tapestry, installation and sculpture to push familiar forms into works that arrest and baffle, while simultaneously offering places of contemplation and solace. Working both as a solo practitioner and in the public sphere of community engagement, I aim to invite altered ways of viewing the world and how we inhabit it, to instigate exploration and examination of what we think we know and are.

The evocative, visceral and physical quality of materials drives my work and gives it its emotional resonance and relevance vis a vis how they are used. I am compelled to layer, wrap, stitch, knot and glue as well as paint, draw and write, layering, disrupting and complicating the surface to add levels of meaning. Often, the meaning or intent becomes clear only during or after this process, as if it had been there all along and simply surfaced during the act of making.

Connor Walden

“Yearn”

Yarn, painted steel, bulb syringe, and plumb bob

48" x 24" x 9"

$2,000.00

2021

My friend held someone’s uterus once. It was dense, red, cold, and fit in the palm of her hand. The density contained the uterus’s propensity of strength, power, and vulnerability to expand, build, nourish, feed, hold, stretch, and push out a new life form. Where is one's center of gravity?

Andrea Fortunoff

Joanna Hoge

Rose Malenfant

Lexi Arrietta

Diane Rosen

Susan Hensel

Detail

Susan Hensel

Rosa Naparstek

Cheryl Hazelton

Chris Desmond

Tami Phelps

Julie Schnell-Madden

2022

I was once a young woman faced with a choice. Today, I am a mother witnessing young people losing that choice, putting their fates in jeopardy. After the overturn of Roe v. Wade, I posted my story on social media the next day. I processed it further into this text-based video.

Joanna Hoge

Virginia Bradley

Susan Karhroody

dennis gerwin

The Womb in the Room Steel, Wool, Porcelain, Eucalyptus Bark 8’ x 14’ x 3’ 2022

THE WOMB IN THE ROOM is my response to the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade and the ensuing abortion laws and debates across our country. It is a call for reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy, and seeks an end to legislating choices over one’s own body.

Larisa Usich

The Womb in the Room

Steel, Wool, Porcelain, Eucalyptus Bark

2022

Emma Schwartz

Val Sivilli

Sharon Dundee

Joer B

Emily Shepard

Min Tian

Audrey White

Melanie Piech

Your choice. Your life. Your rights. Despite what all those white men are saying, arose from research I began in 2021 about the states’ changing abortion laws. I was so angered by the ease with which people felt they had the right to make the decision on abortion for others. That supposed “right” arose from various “reasons,” including religion. Ultimately, I decided to focus on the “reason” of “white maleness.” While we all know that males outnumber women in positions of political power, the voting of the white male legislators in this arena really drives home the consequences of this power imbalance for women.