Bio
We're excited to release 5 prints from Anna Plesset's 20-print edition Modifying Modesty 1. This is first of three print editions by Plesset produced as part of American Paradise, a project that reframes the history of the Hudson River School to give visibility to the many women affiliated with this iconic movement historically associated with men. Using a combination of letterpress, silkscreen, and hand-applied trompe l’oeil effects to emulate aged paper, Plesset’s Modifying Modesty series illustrates the surreptitious ways in which 19th century women enabled themselves to transcend the constraints of their clothes and a male dominated society. During the 1800s, women who wanted to hike or paint outdoors were encumbered by the expectation that they wear corsets, petticoats, and many layers of clothing to comply with expectations. Based on actual patterns published and disseminated throughout the 19th century for “walking dresses,” each print edition depicts revisions to historic patterns in the form of hand annotations that describe the kinds of word-of-mouth adaptations women hikers made to their clothing and the textiles from which they were made. Like an act of détournement, these prints serve as visual proposals or blueprints for circumventing a system that sought to keep women in the domestic sphere and deny them the opportunities to partake and excel in fields relegated to men. With this series, Plesset makes visible unorthodox clothing modifications for which no patterns exist, thereby conferring their legitimacy and underscoring their importance in helping to shape the resistance of a generation of women–a resistance that continues today. In light of ongoing and current threats to women’s reproductive rights nationwide, Drawer and Anna Plesset have partnered to donate 10% of sales to The Pink House Fund and ARC Southeast. “Many Victorian women, fearing being labeled masculine, traveled in conventional outfits with slight variations: they attached rings that enabled them to pull their skirts up with strings during difficult climbs, wore trousers instead of petticoats below long skirts, or opted for shorter skirts–that is, just above the ankle.” - Catherine Smith and Cynthia Greig, “Women in Pants: Manly Maidens, Cowgirls and Other Renegades” (2003) --- Anna Plesset is a New York-based artist whose work reframes familiar histories to reveal that which has been hidden by erasure, translation, discrimination, and time. Her work will be included in the forthcoming exhibition "Reframing American Landscape: Women, Land + Art," at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Catskill, NY (2023) and the New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT (2023-2024). Recent solo exhibitions include “Value Studies," PATRON, Chicago, IL (2021); The Armory Show Presents, Jack Barrett Gallery, New York, NY (2020); “Various Records,” PATRON, Chicago, IL (2019); “Various Records,” Hunter Harrison, London, UK (2019); and “A Still Life,” UNTITLED, New York, NY (2013). Recent group shows include “ID: Formations of the Self,” Shirley Fiterman Art Center, BMCC, New York, NY (2020); “Home/Work,” JDJ | The Ice House, Garrison, NY (2019); “Place/ Image/ Object,” Jack Barrett Gallery, New York, NY (2019); and “I am a Lie and I am Gold," curated by Marco Breuer, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY (2015). Plesset has received awards and fellowships including The Lower East Side Printshop Keyholder Residency, New York, NY (2021-2022); Joan Mitchell Emerging Artist Grant (2016); Abrons AIRspace Residency (2012); and the Terra Summer Residency and Fellowship, Giverny, France (2011). Her work has been written about and reviewed in publications including The New York Times, Artforum, T Magazine, Hyperallergic, Frieze, ARTnews, Cultured, Bomb Magazine, Modern Painters, art-agenda, and The Brooklyn Rail.

Website
http://www.annaplesset.com/