Let's Have a Picnic: How to Entertain Like a Lady Art Exhibit

Join us for the Opening Reception from 5:30 to 8:30 pm at ArtServe. Refreshments will be provided.

Laura Atria's, “Let’s Have a Picnic: How to Entertain like a Lady” illustrates a comical depiction of aspects our society tends to put negative conversations towards: women’s rights and LGBTIQA+ community. Often, these social constructs are portrayed negatively. This Broward County Cultural Division Grant funded series explores societal constructs that are presented to the viewer in mediums of photography and paintings and shown in a playful and whimsical light. Politely poking at the patriarchy, the series connects art with politics and human rights with an artistic and humorous perspective to serious topics. Atria worked with Ian Witlen, an internationally published freelance photographer from Broward County, to create narrated scenes that were used as references for her paintings and will be displayed during the exhibit.

Gender has been in many ways socially constructed. Both the male and female genders have been expected to play specific roles: woman- mother, domesticated, submissive, modest, soft, obedient; man- strength, power, unemotional, head of the household, worker. Humans are so much more than the gender-specific roles that have been bestowed upon them. Being a human is more than biological. It goes well beyond critically looking at gender as a social construct.

We live in a society where human beings are being stripped of their rights. It is extremely important to create safe spaces for everyone to exist, connect, rejoice, and grow especially in the face of censorship and cancel culture. Florida in particular, has extremely harsh laws pertaining to LGBTIQA+ rights with the “Don’t Say Gay” law. In recent years, female reproductive rights, basic human rights for a woman, have been stripped away through the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. These laws violate humanity because of a person’s gender expression and sexuality.

This series is an exploratory commentary, bringing humor to the homophobic and anti-woman. Laughing at adversaries helps generate the ability to heal. Up until very recently the female and LGBTIQA+ points of view have largely been ignored. There is a fear and a shame around abortions and being LGBTIQA+. This series strives to bring attention to this stigma while mocking its challengers.

“Let’s Have a Picnic: How to Entertain like a Lady” is a parody, mocking the system and creating a playful scene filled with subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, references to sexuality. This series is about reproductive and LGBTIQA+ rights, both of which are about the right to own your own body. The viewer may not have gone through these types of discrimination, but there must be a shared understanding that human safety and acceptance are universal.

Atria Bio

Laura Atria is a seasoned public art professional, currently serving as the Public Art and Artist in Residence Program Manager for the City of Pompano Beach and as the President of the Florida Association of Public Art Professionals. With over thirteen years in public art administration, she has a successful track record in developing and implementing art programs and serving on various boards and panels, including the Broward Cultural Council. She holds dual degrees in Studio Art and Art History from FAU. Her expertise has been key in creating Public Art Master Plans, securing grants, and earning accolades, including a one million-dollar Bloomberg Philanthropies Grant.

In addition to her public art advocacy, Atria is a professional artist whose work often focuses on voyeurism, the female, self-healing, and self-definition. She often creates personified characters in her paintings as a way to document her desire to process past traumas and better understand the world. She received the Broward Cultural Division Artists Support Grant in 2023, 2022, and 2021 and was commissioned by President Joe Biden in 2020 to create banner murals for his South Florida Presidential Campaign. As a professional visual artist and Public Arts Program Manager, Atria brings academic and hands-on knowledge in addition to familiarity of artistic theory, principles, and materials to the projects she encounters.

Witlen Bio

Ian Witlen is an internationally published freelance photographer living in Broward County, Witlen specializes in photojournalism, live music, editorial and commercial photography. Clients include Red Bull, Rolling Stone, SPIN, iHeartRadio, Billboard, Pandora, Amazon Front Row, The Guardian, Miami New Times, Entertainment Weekly, AOL Music, Time Warner, Telegraph UK, Daily Mail, Diageo, MTV, Rhapsody, Ultra Music Festival, Universal Music Group, Epitaph Records, Kanine Records, Flip Video, THRASHER Magazine, Sun Sentinel, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Voice Media Group, Interview, Cirque Du Soleil and many more. Recent work can be seen in TIME, Der Spiegel, The Boston Globe, NPR, NY Mag, CNN (The Parkland Diaries), Vanity Fair, Huffington Post, ABC News, CBS News, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Vulture, Bustle, Buzzfeed News, Forbes, Red Bull, Red Bulletin, and more.

Witlen is a former Artist in Resident at the City of Coral Springs Museum of Art. He was awarded funding for his project “Anguish in the Aftermath” through the Community Foundation of Broward by the Helen and Frank Stoykov Charitable Endowment Fund, the Ruth H. Brown Fund for the Arts, the Ron Castell Memorial Fund, the Leonard & Sally Robbins Fund, the Mary N. Porter Community Impact Fund, the Harold Rosenberg Fund for Children's Education, and the Florida Humanities Exhibition Grant.

Host or Publisher Laura Atria