The Corporeal Grotesque Proposes A New Relationship to Social Justice In Gil Yefman's "It Ain't Necessarily Soft" @ Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Los Angeles

All images courtesy of the artist and Shoshana Wayne Gallery.

In his debut solo exhibition It Ain’t Necessarily Soft at Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Gil Yefman exhibits sculptural and two-dimensional installations created over the past decade. Yefman’s practice explores a unique artistic language defined by brightly colored knitted sculptures of grotesque, fluid, multi-organ beings. The knitted work becomes an extension of the body, and felting becomes a memorialization of the experiences held within that body. Though knitting and felting are commonly associated with female, queer, and domestic tasks that would traditionally fall into a strictly decorative category, Yefman redefines them into works that honor a memory within the individual to provide a sense of justice and new presence in the world. These soft objects that were once read as defense mechanisms representing a vulnerable or threatened body are transformed into a new relationship with social injustices.

It Ain’t Necessarily Soft is on view through September 15 @ Shoshana Wayne Gallery, 5247 W Adams Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90016

Gil Yefman, Substraction, 2020.

Gil Yefman, Tumtum, 2012.