At this year’s SECAC virtual conference, hosted by Virginia Commonwealth University, I chaired a panel titled “The Figure Beyond a Constructed Ideal: Representing Contemporary Bodies and Identities in the Studio and the Classroom.” The panel, comprised of national and international artists Daniel Esquiva Zapata, Alaina Plowdrey, Alexandra Giannell, and Evin Dubois, focused on creative scholarship in the realm of figurative art. Participants discussed various ways of representing bodies in a contemporary context, and examined a range of approaches to the human form that expand upon or transcend classical, academic, or popular-culture ideals of representation. https://secacart.org
