Christina Ramberg

Christina Ramberg of the Chicago Imagists group was best known for her acrylic on masonite paintings, but she also incorporated found objects into her works, which often center on stylized mid-century depictions of women and their clothes, especially classic fetish-style undergarments. Ramberg, who died in 1995, saw the work as a way to discuss the female body. “Vertical Amnesia” will be on display in the Henry Street Gallery from March 3-July 16; current hours are noon-6 p.m., Thursday-Sunday.

media release: Taking its title from one of the artist’s signature works in MMoCA’s collection, Vertical Amnesia will center this often overlooked and at times forgotten artist within the Chicago Imagist group. Gaining visibility in this contemporary moment, Christina Ramberg utilized a dizzying amalgam of “found” visual materials—a singular cartoon cel, sewing patterns, fabric grains and textures, girdles and cinchers, wisps of hair and fur—to create works that center on the forgotten, concealed, or overlooked. Even her preferred substrate of Masonite allowed Ramberg to render her brushstrokes nearly invisible. Providing a unique perspective on the world of women and their clothing, her delicate works have garnered great attention in recent years for opening a gateway to discussing femininity, femme, and the gaze. Often read as fetishistic representations, the artist described her work as stemming from her own interest in clothing and how it can be used to talk about the female body.

The exhibition will be on view in the Henry Street Gallery, March 3, 2023 – July 16, 2023.

Exhibitions in the Henry Street Gallery are generously funded through an endowment established by the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation.