Shirtless, with hoop earrings, glasses and a head scarf, she looks up and to the side through the window, inviting passersby to stop and do the same.
The portrait of Venus, a transgender woman, is one of over a dozen hanging in the McGowan Fine Art gallery in downtown Concord through April 22. All are part of “Trans Pose,” a show of oil paintings by artist Catherine Graffam.
Graffam’s oil paintings just happen to be on display on the International Day of Transgender Visibility (today). “I would like to get the credit for that coordination,” Graffam joked in a phone interview Tuesday. “But I think it works nicely.”
That’s because Graffam, a 22-year-old recent graduate from the New Hampshire Institute of Art and a transgender woman, is inevitably putting herself out there. She has several self-portraits in the gallery, and in the run-up to this show she has done several interviews with several news media outlets, including for a previous Monitor article.
And at least at McGowan Fine Art Gallery, Graffam is the first-ever transgender artist to have her work displayed on the gallery walls.
“She’s been very open about it,” said Sarah Chaffee, McGowan director. “It’s very brave of her to take on this role . . . it can be physically dangerous for transgender women in particular.”
Thus far, however, Graffam said she’s avoided any negative interactions in connection with this show. “Which is surprising,” she said, adding that she’s certainly been in situations in the past where her physical safety was threatened.
Transgender people are often victims of not only physical and sexual violence, but evictions, job termination or other discrimination based on their gender identity.
“It’s definitely always in the back of my head,” Graffam said.
But at her artist’s reception last Friday, about 40 people showed up and Chaffee said the gallery has seen a steady stream of visitors every day of the show. There has been little to no pushback, according to both women – just appreciation, mostly, and perhaps some confusion to those unacquainted with the subject matter.
“I think some of the older people don’t have the language for speaking about it,” Chaffee said. But, she added, “People have been amazingly supportive.”
The most common thing people say as they go out the door, she said, is “thank you.”
While Graffam’s paintings focus on transgender identity, she tends to avoid inflammatory, political imagery. Instead, she represents the women themselves, and the emotional – as well as the physical – changes they’re undergoing.
Graffam’s broad brushstrokes, which create an abstract, somewhat fluid quality, ask people to pause, and look closer.
“I think they’re appealing to a broad spectrum of people,” said Chaffee, who has sold two of the paintings so far and is in the process of selling several more. “I think it actually speaks to the broader feminine and human experience of vulnerability.”
Graffam still feels that vulnerability as a trans woman, even if there has been a positive response to her work. People have been reaching out to Graffam on social media and by text – which can be supportive, but also alarming.
“I had texts from people here that I had not told I was trans,” she said, adding that one of them was from her landlord. “It’s scary when someone in a position of power over you has that information.”
Graffam said that when she received that text, “I was like, ‘I guess now everyone knows,’ which is scary, but worth it, because I want to be out and proud in every aspect of my life.”
One of the best parts of her art show and news media attention, Graffam said, is the other trans people she’s met for the first time. “Connecting with those people has been super, super beneficial to my daily life,” she said. “It’s so difficult to find other trans people in New Hampshire because everyone is in their own little rabbit holes.”
Then there’s everyone else who has taken an interest in Graffam’s work, even if they don’t have experience with the transgender community.
Chaffee said people have been particularly willing to consider the topic when they visit the gallery and view Graffam’s portraits, even if it can be a tough conversation.
“I like to push people,” Chaffee said. “And people are really taking that time, they’re open to have discussions about it.”
“It’s nice to feel like people responded and came to the opening,” Graffam said. “I hope it can make trans people more real . . . we’re basically just people.”
(Elodie Reed can be reached at 369-3306, ereed@cmonitor.com or on Twitter
@elodie_reed.)