Look Again: Portraits of Daring Women by Julie Lapping Rivera is an homage to exceptional, pioneering women working across centuries. In a series of hand-carved, woodcut and collage prints, Leverett-based artist Julie Rivera (American, b. 1956) highlights the lives and achievements of women who defied the status quo. Rivera’s portraits invite the viewer to consider who is included, and omitted, from narratives of history today. “This ongoing project of woodcut portraits began five years ago in response to a growing climate of discrimination against women and other marginalized communities,” Rivera explains. “By representing brave and inspiring women, I hope to honor their achievements, bringing to mind the power and creativity that their lives exemplify.”
Look Again was originally inspired by the “Overlooked” project at the New York Times, which shares the achievements of women and other remarkable people historically overlooked by the newspaper’s obituary section. Rivera’s portraits include famous and lesser-known individuals, including Sylvia Plath, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Ida B. Wells, and Henrietta Lacks. Each print is accompanied by a poem, written specifically for the series, by local and international women poets.
Look Again is sponsored by the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts
Julie Rivera (American, b. 1956) is inspired by the meditative practice of woodcut printmaking. She began her career in New York, working as a teaching artist with the Studio in a School Association, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Lincoln Center Institute. Rivera earned her MFA in Painting from Pratt Institute and her BFA in Printmaking from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship recipient in Drawing and received grants from the New York Foundation of the Arts, the National Endowment of the Arts, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Rivera is a Leverett-based artist. She teaches printmaking at Smith College and at Zea Mays Printmaking in Florence, MA.
Image above: Caroline Dormon, 2021, Julie Rivera, woodcut. Collection of the artist.