Sonja Czekalski

Sonja Czekalski is a Rhode Island based interdisciplinary artist and MFA Graduate in Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA. Her current work embeds itself in the fourth wave of American feminism meeting at the intersection of women’s craft, visceral memory, and sustainability. 

Czekalski is the Gallery Director of the historic Hera Gallery in Wakefield, RI. She teaches an array of studio art courses at various New England universities and museums. Czekalski exhibits both regionally and internationally. Recent exhibitions include the Newport Art Museum in Newport RI, Laconia Gallery in Boston MA, and at RANT Arts in Burnie, Tasmania. She is an artist member at Hera Gallery, a member of the North American Hand Papermakers, and a contributor to Witches Magazine. 

Artist Statement

I am an interdisciplinary artist, driven to tell women’s stories. I consider the bloodline of my grandmother, my mother, my sister, the web of women who raised me, and Mother Earth herself. I consider the idea of visceral memory. A type of memory so deep, perhaps even cross-generational, that the mind cannot remember, yet the body can. Using natural materials and traditionally feminine craft materials and techniques passed down by my grandmother, I create each of my works from my own body and personal experience. I am interested in the interconnection between the physical, biological, and spiritual relationships between my body, my ancestry, and the earth herself.

I want the viewer to explore the female figure through an empathetic gaze.  I invite the viewer to question the validity of the stereotyped feminine; to experience and respond to the emotional labor, embarrassment, shame, confusion, richness, and power of female sexuality, fertility, social expectation, and responsibility. Ultimately though my practice provides more questions and contradictions about feminism than answers, it gives voice to the raw experiences of womanhood.