Artist Series: Riva Lehrer

Riva Lehrer is an artist, writer, and curator whose work centers on the socially challenged body, creating portraits of people whose physical embodiment, sexuality, or gender identity have long been stigmatized. Through painting and interdisciplinary practice, Lehrer’s work highlights dignity, agency, and lived experience while challenging dominant narratives around disability and difference. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the Hirshhorn Museum, the United Nations, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Lehrer is the author of the award-winning memoir Golem Girl and has received fellowships and grants from the Ford Foundation, 3Arts, Carnegie Mellon, and the National Endowment for the Arts.