Sophia Wallace

About

American, b. 1978   —   Sophia Wallace, a mixed media artist with a BA in Political Science from Smith College and an MA in Photography from New York University & The International Center of Photography. Best known for her viral project CLITERACY, Wallace is interested in the ways that people assigned female at birth and trans women are denied self-determination through the weaponization of their genitals. Through diverse materials and approaches, including large text, sculpture, installation and performance, Wallace’s art seeks to establish the clitoris in visual representation; a vital part of our understanding of the body. Her work is shown widely in the US and internationally including Spain, Austria, Mexico, Italy, Nigeria, Australia and the UK. Exhibitions of Wallace's art have been held at Kunsthalle Wien Museum, Samek Art Museum, Leslie-Lohman Museum, Aperture Gallery, Taschen Gallery, Blueproject Foundation, and Newspace Center of Photography among others. Her works are in the permanent collections of Agnes Scott College, The Leslie-Lohman Museum and The Vescom Collection. Critical recognition of Wallace's work on gendered body knowledge includes The New York Times, The Atlantic, PBS, ARTE, The Guardian, Art in America, Teen Vogue, New Yorker, Time, VICE, and Huffington Post among others. Her TED featured talk, 'A Case For Cliteracy' has been viewed over 1 million times while her interactive collaboration with Huffington Post, ‘The Overdue, Under-told Story of the Clitoris’, received 3.5 million views and was translated in 3 languages. Wallace has been honored with the Griffin Museum’s Critic’s Pick Award, and PDN’s Curator Award. She was a 2012 recipient of the Van Lier Fellowship, and a 2019 "Artist On Our Radar" with Creative Capital. She was a 2019 Artist in Residence at the Project For Empty Space Feminist Incubator and an Artist in Residence at Vermont Studio Center. She is a 2020 inaugural grantee of the Crave Foundation. Most recently, she can be seen in the documentary films The Dilemma of Desire, Until She Is Free and FLOWSTATE.