Today is the opening day of Mirror Mirror, curated by Mary Grace Bernard and Genevieve Waller, featuring the artwork of Román Anaya, Paula Gillen, Stacy Platt, Gabby Recny, Emily Van Lain, and Lauren Winges.

“Who is the fairest one of all?” This phrase continues to hold power over us. Who is the most beautiful, who is the most desirable, who is the most worthy of love?

Mirror Mirror toys with these hierarchies through challenging representations of the self and identity in collage, film, and photography. The title refers to the well-known query of the evil stepmother in the Snow White fairy tale. The full phrase “Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?,” is steeped in racial and gender politics. For us, the word “fair” implies the superiority of light skin and physical beauty as a woman’s highest achievement. With the works in this exhibition, we aim to counter and open up a dialogue about these embedded values.

Through confronting the viewer with idealized masculine and non-binary beauty, featuring people of color as superstars, bending gender norms of self-presentation, revealing the artifice of feminine perfection, exploring inner realities, and transfiguring into other life forms, these artists present us with alternate views of what it means to be attractive and what a mirror held up to our selves—in this case, the camera as our mirror—can disclose and proclaim. We hope you enjoy these powerful visions of a more inclusive beauty and varied forms of gender, race, and subjectivity representations.