November 04, 2020 Genevieve DeLeon Meet the artists of the 2020 MCAD Faculty Biennial. These drawings are part of a series I've been working on since moving to Minneapolis. They are autobiographical and come from a space of longing for community and healing. When I sit down to draw, I often return to early memories of myself. An only child, shy, and queer, I would spend hours alone in the house. My mom, a Lebanese-American who passes as white, kept up with British interior design and made sure my room and our family space were coded as white and in good class standing. My father’s body, the body of a Guatemalan immigrant, and my body, a queer body of mixed ethnicity, interrupted those spaces. These drawings imagine more bodies like mine taking up space, playing, exploring sexuality, pulling each other up and out of fear and isolation. Since the uprising and the onset of the pandemic, play and freedom of erotic expression feel further off than ever. Survival mode bleeds me out. And yet our unity since George Floyd’s murder, our anger brought forward an agency that was erotic, that pulsed as it lifted. Back in my room, when the threat of violence lingers and the pressures of work rise like an unstoppable tide, I admit that I am still “in training” in my ability to channel fear into power and fullness. It is momentary—like a flash—or atmospheric or liquid, but even the humble admittance of incompleteness yields something akin to liberation. These drawings are a prayer for resilience: no way out but through. About Genevieve DeLeon Genevieve DeLeon is an artist, poet, and MFA graduate from Cranbrook Academy of Art, where she worked under the direction of Beverly Fishman. Her work has been exhibited at DC Artspace, Tessellate Gallery, Forum Gallery, the Washington Studio School, and an upcoming exhibition at Modus Locus. She works on community-based projects in the Twin Cities and in the DC area. Explore more about Genevieve Deleon