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Can A Rooster Be A Feminist Icon? Artist Thinks So

By Ariel Cheung | May 15, 2015 12:02pm
 Jeffly Molina's solo exhibition,
Jeffly Molina's solo exhibition,"[My Business is Circumference]" studies female duality and her Venezuelan upbringing through abstract paintings.
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Provided/Jeffly Molina

SOUTHPORT CORRIDOR — A decade ago, in Venezuela, a young Jeffly Molina had dreams of becoming an artist.

On Friday, Kruger Gallery, 3709 N. Southport Ave., will unveil Molina's solo exhibition, "[My Business is Circumference]". Her abstract, geographic paintings represent, among other things, her thoughts on femininity and her Venezuelan upbringing.

Molina, now 25, left her home city of San Cristobal when she was 17 and moved to Miami to work at her aunt's restaurant. Determined to learn English, she began reading works by female authors like Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf and Kate Chopin.

Molina was particularly inspired by a letter Dickinson sent to a publisher, describing herself as, "small, like the wren; and my hair is bold, like the chestnut bur" instead of sending a requested portrait.

"She asserts herself in such a poetic way, but also the images in the letter made me think of how I could explore this persona with different images," Molina said.

Of particular interest to Molina was the "plurality of women identity," and several of her paintings attempt to express the idea that women, along with men, have different personalities and reactions under different circumstances.

"To Those First Feelings That Were Born With Me," for example, depicts a rooster silhouette. 

"The rooster is a symbol of pride in my culture, but it's also a very domestic animal. I grew up with roosters in my backyard," Molina said. "We have those attitudes of wanting to be submissive or against wanting to be — the ones that make us proud and leaders — and so that's what the rooster [symbolizes]."

In Miami, Molina attended community college while helping in her aunt's restaurant. She began hanging her work at the business, which soon got attention from a Chicago couple of restaurateurs.

The couple began purchasing her paintings and eventually helped her to apply to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and sponsored her. Molina graduated with her bachelor's degree in 2013 and expects to finish her master's in 2016.

"They are a wonderful family, so wealthy in a way that is not related to material wealth only, but in so many ways. They just believed in me, and thanks to them, I am going to this amazing school, and now I have this amazing opportunity to have this show," Molina said.

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