User:Aneira1/gap analysis

Gap analysis

 * What is the title of the article in which you identified a gap. If no article exists at all, what should the title be?

Jane Zweibel


 * Document the gap you found, describe how you identified it, and analyze its impact on knowledge.

Wikipedia currently has no page for feminist artist Jane Zweibel. As I was looking for feminist artists to document, it seemed to me that many of the feminist artists using non-traditional forms of art (performance, cloth, quilts, etc.) are underrepresented even in the category of “feminist artists” on Wikipedia. For this reason, I found Zweibel who uses a variety of mediums to convey her art. I first found her on the Brooklyn Museum Sackler Center for Feminist Art Base website. The gap that limits knowledge on feminist artists who use multiple medias and non-traditional forms of art perpetuates art hierarchies. For example, many pieces of high art are in the form of oil painting, drawings, or other canvas-type works. European white males traditionally used these forms of art. By providing an unequal representation of this art, non-traditional feminist artists are underrepresented and discouraged from showing their work in galleries. Many times these artists represent the voices of the ignored and oppressed in a novel way that may spark new ideas in audience members. This can then start a conversation about intersectionality, colonization, among other topics. Zweibel is an example of this kind of artist because she explores female identity, gender norms, and culture. She presents her own perspective on life in an unconventional way that breaks the canon of American feminist artists. It is so important to close the gaps about non-traditional feminist art on Wikipedia and elsewhere because diversity in feminist art can bring about conversations about equality around the world.


 * Propose a paragraph of new or substantially edited content based on reliable sources. (If you are editing existing content, post the current version along with your edited version, and clearly mark which is which.)

Jane Zweibel was educated at Bennington College and Columbia University and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her art uses a diversity of mediums, including canvas, paper, sewn and stuffed paintings, and sculptures. By doing so, her art becomes more imaginative and unconventional. In each series of pieces she creates, there is a story about female identity in a chaotic world. Frequently she uses self-portraits to queer the “woman to be gazed upon” model. Zweibel also uses ordinary objects as symbols in her art. For example, she uses flowers to represent beauty and decay, pill bottles to represent vulnerability, and other objects associated with women to question gender and sexuality. In fact, many of her pieces examine gender, sexuality, body image, and aging as transformations of the female body. In Zweibel’s Midlife Mermaids series, the artist inserts her own face into the mermaids as a self-portrait. Since mermaids are both sirens to lure men in and feminine representations, Zweibel explores female sexuality and roles through this series. She draws from her own experience of urban life, family, social issues, and links public and private domains. Zweibel builds upon collective feminist art experiences while experimenting in a variety of art mediums that blur fine art and crafts. Like other feminist artists she puts herself into the art, but also uniquely uses objects to represent herself in the art. She explores creative mediums and uses her own experiences to further scrutinize the female object in traditional art forms.


 * List the reliable sources that could be used to improve this gap. (You can use the Cite tool from the editing toolbar above to input and format your sources.)


 * Feliciano, Kristina. "Self-Portraits In The Third Person." American Artist 61.662 (1997): 66-72. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Feb. 2016.
 * "Jane Zweibel." Brooklyn Museum:. N.p., 2016. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.
 * Zweibel, Jane. "Jane Zweibel - Artist." Jane Zweibel - Artist. N.p., 2014. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.
 * Zweibel, Jane. "Leslie's Artgallery : About Jane ZWEIBEL." Leslie's Artgallery : About Jane ZWEIBEL. Lelie's Artgallery, 2014. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.


 * Ritter, Zachary. "Jane Zweibel." Alfa Art Gallery. NJ InfoTech, 2016. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.