What is really important to me when learning from another artist is the understanding they bring from their own creative practice. Rachel Lachowicz’s recent show, Cockeyed at Shashona Wayne Gallery in Los Angeles is no exception.
Spanning a lengthy career with works from 1991-2026, Cockeyed challenges “canonical structures” with use of lipstick, wax and makeup pigments creating provocative art through simple forms that have traditionally excluded women in their narrative. The works in the show are an amalgamation of a career spanning three decades of social issues and conversations that continue to this day.
Poignant shapes of coat hangers are in direct conversation with the overturning of Roe vs Wade and become a stark reminder of what women lost with health and safety with that verdict. Lachowicz does not shy away from hard conversation but instead makes a deeply affected, strong statement of current women’s issues.
Having learned directly from Rachel in graduate school and having her as a mentor and head of my thesis show committee, I know the importance of sharing my voice and holding strong to my convictions as both a mother and a women navigating a still, primarily male dominated art world. While tides are slowly turning and a new guard is taking control, these systemic issues are still prevalent and the fight to continue to have new, important voices heard is just as important as respecting the voices that paved the way before us.
Rachel does this both in the classroom and her exhibitions. The works provide a framework for important discussions surrounding culture, women’s issues, and how to navigate difficult discussions.
While Cockeyed closed this weekend, Rachel’s “work can be found in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; The Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; the Perez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL, among many others.”
Please note: All photography in this essay is by Sarah Stevenson and used with permission of the artist.