Storyboard: The Sexual Politics of Jackie Felix

Admired for her energy and passion, Jackie Felix tackled subjects others avoided. Her intensely dramatic work critiques the callous, violent, and dispassionate sexuality that permeates American culture. Her subjects reflect a zealous, sometimes ironic, attack on ways that women are stereotyped as two-dimensional, subordinate pawns. Her invectives also challenge American commerce, religious dogma, and the iconic representation of sexuality, from prehistoric fecundity goddesses to contemporary comic books, television, and film. Some images link together in a narrative thread like storyboarding, a film planning process. Although her characters frequently reflected an inability to communicate, Jackie Felix spoke loud and clear.

To serve the female/male dialectic, a selection of friends and curators contributed to the catalog. Her husband, Al Felix, shares some of his poetry about Jackie, their relationship, universal life experiences, and the profundity of loss. Other contributors include Sara Kellner, Executive Director of DiverseWorks Art Space in Houston, who worked closely with Jackie at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center; Richard Huntington, former art critic for the Buffalo Courier-Express and Buffalo News and a painter, and Nancy Weekly, Head of Collections and the Charles Cary Rumsey Curator of the Burchfield Penney Art Center, who curated the exhibition. Representing Jackie Felix's dynamic artistic career, this exhibition of provocative art addresses topical social issues, such as female identity, popular culture, and sexual politics, so it might stimulate awareness, discussion, and change.