The dictatrix

Deborah Castillo is a Venezuelan-born, Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist. She holds an MFA and BFA from Armando Reverón Higher Education School of Fine Arts in Caracas, Venezuela. Castillo has been granted numerous awards and residencies including NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program, (2015), NYC, The Banff Center. Artist in Residence Program in Visual Arts (2015) Canada, Atlantic Center for the Arts (2014), Florida and London Print Studio, (2007) UK as well as "Premio Armando Reverón"; AVAP in the "Young Artist Category" (2013), "XI Salón Eugenio Mendoza" Award, Sala Mendoza, (2003); VI Salón CANTV, Jóvenes con FIA" Award, (2003) Caracas, Venezuela and more. Her work has been exhibited at Museum of Arts and Design (US), New Museum (US), Rufino Tamayo Museum (Mexico), Carrillo Gil Museum (Mexico); Escuela de Bellas Artes, Bolivian Biennial SIART (Bolivia), UCLA (US), ICA (UK), Palais de Tokyo (France, The Broad Museum (US), Smack Mellon (US), and the Hemispheric Institute (US), among others.

Five women stand in a dark room. They are nude except for the busts they wear, each bearing the face of a dictator: Mao Zedong, Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx, Fidel Castro, and Joseph Stalin. The Dictatrix (2018) playfully examines notions of power within and upon the hypersexualized bodies of women. Their gestures and their naked forms clash with the masculinist theories and ideas of uniformity espoused by each political figure the women portray.