Written by: Terry Doe
A wet, drab, Thursday in May. A message comes in summoning me to make my way down to Manhattan’s Soho district. The reason? The opening festivities of this year’s SuperFine! Art Exhibition – a rather low key, unobtrusive, yet refreshingly exhilarating art show held as a precursor to this year’s Frieze Art Show. The person doing the summoning? None other than the notable multi-disciplinary artist and doyenne of “Art For Change” Indira Cesarine – perhaps the truest and most ardent personification of a powerful, chameleon-like renaissance woman to be found anywhere on the globe.
A leading influential figure in the art world, Cesarine has a storied 25 year career in the industry as an artist, gallery owner, fashion photographer, Editor-In-Chief, and advocate for various noble and life-affirming causes – including her longstanding contributions to providing artists, particularly female artists, with a reputable, controversial, and game-changing platform that is as commanding as any great art organization one might have heard of. Her steadfast advocacy famously includes the rights and protections of female artists to not only be represented in equal measure to their male counterparts, but to foster the growth of the works themselves to become statements of empowerment for all women (and men), which includes a demand for them to be seen, discussed, and priced equally to male artists. On entering the exhibit, I spot a statuesque, gold-locked beauty in a stunning blue dress greeting viewers in the event’s main booth. One instantly senses that this woman is indeed a powerhouse, firebrand creature. It is Cesarine, and her artwork is being exhibited alongside works by controversial international artists Sarah Maple, Fahren Feingold, Tina Maria Elena Bak, Annika Connor, and Cabell Molina in a show titled “The Female Gaze On Love, Lust, And Longing”, at the booth by The Untitled Space gallery.
As a multimedia artist, Cesarine’s work spans painting, sculpture, photography, video, and printmaking; and her work has been exhibited internationally at innumerable art galleries, museums, and festival’s including The MET, CICA Museum, The Museum Of Contemporary Art San Diego, Art Basel Miami, Cannes Film Festival, Sotheby’s, SCOPE Art Fair, and so many more. Her work as an artist has also been celebrated in international publication’s including Italian Vogue, Artnet, Vogue, NY Times, Vogue, W, Juxtapoz, Art Forum, Blouin ArtInfo, CNN …and the list goes on.
Cesarine life is not just about her art, she also is a supporter of Planned Parenthood, and is on the committee for their NY fundraiser, “Spring into Action.” PPNYC is currently fighting the Domestic Gag rule, which would prevent them from participating in Title X, the nation’s only family planning program. She also is a supporter of the Coalition for the Homeless and has donated artwork for their annual fundraising exhibition, Artwalk NY. She recently started working with Many Hopes, which is a non-profit that raises funds for girl’s education in Kenya. The organization rescues abused girls and has a school that has had phenomenal results. Lastly, she’s in the process of launching her own initiative called Art4Equality which will raise funds to directly impact gender equality in the art-world and creative industries.
