When Richmond’s Gallery 5 approached Katie McBride (BFA ’04) about curating an exhibition, she saw an opportunity to showcase talented local illustrators—particularly women and non-binary people.
“I thought of recent conversations I’ve had about male artists getting hired for illustration jobs that spoke specifically to women’s social issues, and often creating work that did not conceptually resonate with actual women,” she says. “The explanation often tossed around was that editorial requires quick turns, and people hire who they know and can think of.”
“That sounded ridiculous to me. I could make a list in 20 minutes, and fill a room with phenomenal illustration by women, even local women. And then I realized I had that room.”
“Gold for a Silver Situation” opened in January with work from 12 Richmond artists. McBride looked for a variety of backgrounds to show the breadth of what illustration and narrative art can be, and how diverse personal experiences can inform those stories and images.
“These are artists who work as tenure track professors, have work in museum collections, clients like the New York Times or Random House publishing, and have had their work seen by tens of thousands of people,” McBride says. “If someone is seeking an artist to create work around women’s lived experiences—or anything else for that matter—there are plenty of qualified women.”
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