Boxed

Female with long black hair wearing blackclothing and sitting inside a box.

Painting of a teenage girl wearing a purple shirt and jeans in a box

Painting of young non-binary person in a box wearing denim shorts and a blue shirt

Painting of young black woman in a box wearing jeans and a black t- shirt

Painting of a woman wearing a yellow blazer with red hair who is in a box. Her expression is one of distress.

Painting of young woman in a box. she has long red hair and is wearing grey pants and black boots.

Young person with short spiky red hair inside a box. They are wearing a white slip and Doc Marten boots.

Painting of a woman in a box with long black hair, wearing a red shirt.

“The woman’s body is one of the essential elements of the situation she occupies in this world.”

-Simone De Beauvoir

All of the subjects of the paintings in this series are of women and self-described non-binary people.

I started this series in response to the 2022 Supreme court decision overturning Roe v Wade and the attempt to contain and control women by literally depicting them in boxes. With each painting, I aim to explore my own feelings about identity and restrictions as a woman while attempting to understand and empathize with my subjects and their own feelings of confinement and entrapment.

Barbara Pollak-Lewis

Painter/ CURATOR/ educator

BOXed