Aliza Shvarts

{{main|Untitled (Senior Thesis)}}

In the spring of her senior year at Yale, Shvarts's first major work, Untitled [Senior Thesis] (2008), was the center of an international debate around abortion. The piece consisted of a "durational" (crudely translated as "extended time") performance of self-induced miscarriages,{{Cite news|url=https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2008/04/18/shvarts-explains-her-repeated-self-induced-miscarriages/|title=Shvarts Explains Her 'Repeated Self-Induced Miscarriages'|last=Shvarts|first=Aliza|date=18 April 2008|work=Yale News|access-date=30 May 2018}} and was intensely controversial, with criticism from mass media outlets and both anti-abortion and pro-choice political commentators. Yale claimed that the project was a “creative fiction”{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/nyregion/23yale.html|title=An Artwork at Yale May Not Be Real, but the Furor Is|first=Karen W.|last=Arenson|newspaper=The New York Times|date=23 April 2008}} and requested that Shvarts submit an alternate thesis project in order to graduate.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/arts/22arts-YALEDEMANDSE_BRF.html|title=Yale Demands End to Student's Performance|last=Kennedy|first=Randy|date=2008-04-22|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-05-30|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/arts/01arts-YALESTUDENTS_BRF.html|title=Yale Students' New Art|last=Gelder|first=Lawrence Van|date=2008-05-01|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-05-30|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} The work has since been considered an important piece of feminist performance art. Theorist Jennifer Doyle notes that the performance “exposed the investments of a range of institutional systems in [the female] body as both a creative and reproductive system,” and wrote of the media controversy, “the content of the performance has expanded to include nearly all reaction to it.” Art historian Carrie Lambert Beatty writes that the project's “central point [is] that what we take as biological facts are constructed in language and ideology,” noting the different implications of calling Shvarts's bleeding a period, a miscarriage, or an abortion. Shvarts's later artworks made using documentation of Untitled [Senior Thesis] have since been exhibited at Artspace, New Haven{{cite web|url=https://artspacenewhaven.org/exhibitions/aliza-shvarts-off-scene/|title=Aliza Shvarts: Off Scene May 11- June 30, 2018 |date=2018|website=Artspace New Haven|access-date=30 May 2018}} and written about in Texte zur Kunst,{{Cite journal|last=Fusco|first=Coco|date=March 2018|title=Learning the Rules of the Game: Art Without Rules?|journal=Texte zur Kunst|volume=109|pages=108}} Mousse, and Artforum.{{Cite journal|last=Olunkwa|first=Emmanuel|date=June 12, 2018|title=Interviews: Aliza Shvarts talks about her exhibition at Artspace in New Haven, Connecticut|url=https://www.artforum.com/interviews/aliza-shvarts-talks-about-her-exhibition-at-artspace-in-new-haven-connecticut-75730|journal=Artforum}}

Shvarts continues to explore ideas surrounding gender, narrative, and truth in her performance Please Come Find Me (2012), in which she invited participants to ask her to do something they thought she'd never done before,Schotzko, 124. as well as Non-consensual Collaborations (2012–ongoing), in which she retroactively designates events and interactions not initially conceived as part of an artistic project as art{{cite journal |last1=Kachel |first1=Andrew |title=Aliza Shvarts |journal=Out of Order |date=2017 |volume=Summer |page=260}} to explore the gendered dynamics of artistic collaboration. Non-consensual Collaborations has been presented at the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics{{Cite web|url=http://hemisphericinstitute.org/excentrico/5973/aliza-shvarts/|title=Aliza Shvarts|website=Hemispheric Institute|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180628183356/http://hemisphericinstitute.org/excentrico/5973/aliza-shvarts/|archive-date=2018-06-28|access-date=2018-05-30|url-status=dead}} and The 8th Floor, New York.{{cite web|url=http://sdrubin.org/events/march-29-consentdissent-talk-aliza-shvarts-emma-sulkowicz/|title=March 29: Consent/Dissent, a talk by Aliza Shvarts and Emma Sulkowicz|date=24 March 2017|website=The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180610170819/http://www.sdrubin.org/events/march-29-consentdissent-talk-aliza-shvarts-emma-sulkowicz/|archive-date=10 June 2018|access-date=30 May 2018|url-status=dead}}

In 2017, Shvarts further used digital communication and mass media to engage concepts of “truthiness” and “fake news" in How Does It Feel To Be A Fiction (2017), a viral email performance that explores the various ways in which people are read as fictional along lines of race, class, gender, and sexuality by systems of institutional power.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://issuu.com/alizashvarts/docs/offscene_final_pages_cover_issuu|title=Off-Scene|last=Szymanek|first=Angelique|publisher=Artspace|year=2018|location=New Haven, CT|pages=3–7|chapter=Aliza Shvarts: Material Fictions}} Originally commissioned by Recess’s Critical Writing Fellowship,{{Cite web|url=https://www.recessart.org/alizashvarts/|title=Aliza Shvarts: How Does it Feel to Be a Fiction? |last=Shvarts|first=Aliza |website=Recess|date=6 April 2017 |access-date=30 May 2018}} versions of How Does It Feel To Be A Fiction have been presented at the Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá,{{Cite web|url=http://www.decabeza.org/no-coma-cuento/|title=(No) coma cuento Verdad y mentira al mismo tiempo (y en sentido contrario)|date=2017|website=De Cabeza|language=es|access-date=30 May 2018}} and Artspace, New Haven.

Shvarts's writing has appeared in TDR: The Drama Review,{{cite journal|title=The Con|first=Aliza|last=Shvarts|date=1 June 2014|journal=TDR/The Drama Review|volume=58|issue=2|pages=2–3|doi=10.1162/dram_a_00342|s2cid=57564363|doi-access=free}} The Feminist and Queer Information Studies Reader,{{cite book|url=http://litwinbooks.com/fqis-reader.php|title=Litwin Books, LLC : Feminist and Queer Information Studies Reader|isbn=978-1-936117-16-1|access-date=30 May 2018|last1=Keilty|first1=Patrick|last2=Dean|first2=Rebecca|year=2013|publisher=Litwin Books, LLC }} and The Brooklyn Rail.{{cite web|url=https://brooklynrail.org/2015/02/criticspage/black-wedding|title=Black Wedding|last=Shvarts|first=Aliza|date=5 February 2015|website=The Brooklyn Rail|access-date=30 May 2018}}{{cite web|url=http://www.thefader.com/2015/12/01/sunn-o-interview-kannon-album|title=How Sunn O)))'s Subversive Metal Birthed An Album With A Buddhist Heart|last=Barron|first=Michael|date=1 December 2015|website=The Fader|access-date=30 May 2018}} She is on the advisory board of Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory,{{Cite web|url=https://www.womenandperformance.org/about/|title=About the Journal|website=Women & Performance|access-date=30 May 2018}} where she has published a number of essays, including “Figuration and Failure, Performance and Pedagogy: Reflections Three Years Later,” which considers what it meant to be known for a piece that had, at the time, never been exhibited publicly.{{Cite journal|last=Shvarts|first=Aliza|date=March 2011|title=Figuration and Failure, Pedagogy and Performance: Reflections Three Years Later|url=https://alizashvarts.com/ewExternalFiles/Figuration%20and%20Failure.pdf|journal=Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory|volume=21|issue=1|pages=155–162|doi=10.1080/0740770X.2011.563047|s2cid=191495535}}

She has given talks and lectures at Artists Space,{{cite web|url=http://artistsspace.org/programs/in-the-last-instance|title=In the Last Instance|date=2017|website=Artists Space|access-date=30 May 2018}} the Whitney Museum,{{cite web|url=https://whitney.org/Events/CriticalUtopianism|title=Critical Utopianism from Yoko Ono to Jimmie Durham - Whitney Museum of American Art|date=2017|website=Whitney Museum of American Art|access-date=30 May 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://whitney.org/Events/ParticipationOccupationBelonging|title=Learning Series Lecture: Participation/ Occupation/ Belonging - Whitney Museum of American Art|website=Whitney Museum of American Art|access-date=30 May 2018}} Harvard University,{{cite web|url=https://drclas.harvard.edu/event/prosthetic-programming|title=ARTS@DRCLAS/ HAA/ VES Series: Prosthetic Realities Programming|website=David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies|publisher=Harvard University|access-date=30 May 2018}} and Abrons Arts Center,{{cite web|url=http://www.abronsartscenter.org/on-view/exhibits/queens-of-welfare-pawns-of-capital-reframingwelfare-debates-through-archives-public-discussions-and-brunch/|title=Queens of Welfare / Pawns of Capital: ReframingWelfare Debates Through Archives, Public Discussions and Brunch|website=Abrons Arts Center|access-date=30 May 2018}} among other institutions. In addition to her artistic and scholarly work, Shvarts has written liner notes for the drone metal band Sunn O)))'s album Kannon{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/dec/03/sunn-o-kannon-review|title=Sunn O))): Kannon review – daunting but oddly relaxing drone-metal|last=Bakare|first=Lanre|date=3 December 2015|website=The Guardian|access-date=30 May 2018}} and appeared as a guest commentator on MTV.{{cite web|url=http://www.mtv.com/video-clips/3c3ycd/performance-artist-aliza-shvarts-comments-on-kanye-west-s-runaway|title=Performance Artist Aliza Shvarts Comments On Kayne West's 'Runaway' (Video Clip) - MTV|website=MTV|access-date=30 May 2018}}{{dead link|date=June 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

Shvarts's work has been the subject of a solo exhibition at Artspace, New Haven, which occurred on the decade anniversary of Untitled [Senior Thesis] (2008) being censored by Yale. She has also exhibited and performed at Abrons Art Center{{cite web|url=http://www.abronsartscenter.org/on-stage/shows/subject-to-capital/|title=Subject to Capital|website=Abrons Arts Center|access-date=30 May 2018}} and Lévy Gorvy in New York;{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} the Slought Foundation in Philadelphia;{{cite web|url=https://slought.org/resources/emergent_perspectives|title=Emergent Perspectives|website=Slought|access-date=30 May 2018}} and Performance Space {{cite web|url=http://www.performancespace.org/soapboxsession|title=April 2015: Directing Actions|website=Performance Space|access-date=30 May 2018}} and the Tate Modern{{cite web|url=https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2008/06/26/shvarts-to-present-new-piece-at-tate-modern/|title=Shvarts to present new piece at Tate Modern|last1=Abrahamson|first1=Zachary|last2=Kaplan|first2=Thomas|date=26 June 2008|website=Yale News|access-date=30 May 2018}} in London, among other venues. She frequently designs stage sets for and performs with Carmelita Tropicana,{{cite web|url=http://sfonline.barnard.edu/life-un-ltd-feminism-bioscience-race/bio-performatives-cross-species-and-continents-of-plastic-in-chicas-2000-and-post-plastica-an-interview-with-carmelita-tropicana-and-ela-troyano/3/|title=Bio-Performatives, Cross-Species, and Continents of Plastic in Chicas 2000 and Post Plastica: An Interview with Carmelita Tropicana and Ela Troyano|last=McHugh|first=Kathleen|date=2013|website=S&F Online|publisher=Barnard Center for Research on Women|access-date=30 May 2018}} and has collaborated with Vaginal Davis,{{cite web|url=https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/80wse/gallery/2016/05/themagicfluteparttwo|title=The Magic Flute, Part Two: A Film in Pieces - 80 Washington Square East Galleries - NYU Steinhardt|last1=Auder|first1=Michel|last2=Stickrod|first2=Michael|date=2015|website=Steinhardt|publisher=NYU|access-date=30 May 2018}} Emma Sulkowicz,{{cite web|url=https://brooklynrail.org/2017/05/art/Emma-Sulkowicz-with-Kang-Kang|title=Emma Sulkowicz with Kang Kang|date=1 May 2017|website=The Brooklyn Rail|access-date=30 May 2018}} and Critical Practices, Inc.{{cite web|url=http://www.criticalpractices.org/about/|title=About Us|website=Critical Practices Inc.|access-date=30 May 2018}}

Shvarts was a 2017 Critical Writing Fellow at Recess, New York and a 2014 recipient of the Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant.{{cite web|url=https://www.artforum.com/news/2014-warhol-arts-writers-grants-announced-49356|title=2014 Warhol Arts Writers Grants Announced|date=4 December 2014|website=ArtForum|access-date=30 May 2018}} She attended the Whitney Independent Study Program as a Helena Rubinstein Fellow in Critical Studies in 2014 to 2015.{{cite web|url=https://whitney.org/Events/2015CriticalStudiesProgramSymposium|title=Whitney Independent Study Program Critical Studies Symposium: Critical Perspectives on Visual Culture - Whitney Museum of American Art|website=Whitney Museum of American Art|access-date=30 May 2018}}

• Amalia Ulman

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official|alizashvarts.com}}
• [https://artspacenewhaven.org/exhibitions/aliza-shvarts-off-scene/ Off Scene, Shvarts's solo exhibition at Artspace, New Haven]

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Category:1986 births

Category:Living people

Category:American women artists

Category:Jewish American artists

Category:American contemporary artists

Category:Yale University alumni

Category:21st-century American women