Livingston Art Show Featured Glasgow Artist Cathryn Reitler

Local artist Cathryn Reitler, who has since married and now goes by McIntyre, was a featured artist in the #MeToo: A Visual Dialogue group show at Green Door Gallery in Livingston, Mont. The reception was held July 27, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Reitler’s work was featured alongside Livingston artists Angie Froke, John Garre and Tandy Riddle, and Billings artist Jane Deschner.

Gallery Director Lisa Snow recruited Reitler, after becoming familiar with the artist’s work from a previous show in Livingston a couple years prior. Snow herself is an owner of Reitler’s work, having purchased a series of two embroidered paintings from the Glasgow artist.

The artworks purchased by Snow tied in to the current exhibit, a visual expression of voice and perspective that reflected experiences surrounding the #MeToo movement. The two purchased pieces and the works on display in Livingston at the Green Door Gallery were in the same body of work Reitler had created for a solo show at a gallery at the College of Southern Nevada in 2013. Even before the #MeToo movement dominated national headlines, Reitler was using her creative talents to explore the difficult topic of professional roles and relationships. The artist explains, “The original body of work, and show itself, were created with the intention of investigating the female role within the context of the workplace.”

Reitler’s work focused on young women working in male-dominated fields. Promising her subjects discretion, she interviewed women who fit a stereotypical aesthetic ideal and of a certain age and body type. Of her process, she says, “I played into the male gaze, and tried to put myself in the place of male coworkers.” Reitler intentionally portrayed the women in a voyeuristic manner, nude as male coworkers might imagine them, placed in a manner that mimicked their professional environment. Her work was also heavily influenced by the book Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy, which explored the sexualized nature of American culture and the objectification of women.

Known for her use of nontraditional and unexpected canvasses, these pieces were painted on surfaces sewn entirely by hand by Reitler, of clothing worn by the women to their work. The canvass itself is a testament to the thought and care Reitler gives each of her pieces, weaving together artist and muse, as she explains, “So the paintings literally have the women’s biology IN them.”

Each piece also featured quotes from interviews Reitler conducted with the woman, hand-embroidered on the surfaces, resulting in paintings featuring alluring, beautiful woman overlaid with glaring and sometimes painful truths these women faced in the workplace. This multi-dimensional touch engendered a dichotomous reaction from viewers first drawn to the beauty of the women, then shocked by the truths found in the quotes.

Of her experience with the show in Livingston, Reitler most enjoyed the crowd that attended the exhibition, “The most gratifying element of this particular show was in sharing work that I have not shared within the state of Montana and in meeting the many women at the opening with whom the work resonated.” The work that went into the pieces on display in Livingston was both time consuming, because of the surfaces and the embroidery, and, in addition to the research involved, the paintings themselves were quite ambitious, according to Reitler.

This show was a departure from the work she is more well-known for locally, though this series is a reflection of how her overall body of work is more varied and multifaceted than the canvases she works on. While grateful for the opportunity to create a more commercial, market-driven body of work, she welcomed the chance to revisit a series she had dedicated so much time and research to. This content-driven collection is part of what she calls, “the quieter, subliminal conversation” of creation. “These works, this series, is work of that nature. Pieces that I feel driven to create to satisfy my own personal muse, but pieces I don’t feel pressure to share with any audience in particular.”

Reitler will next be attending a one-week residency in Medora, N.D., Aug. 19 to 26. Her art will remain in exhibition there through Saturday, Sept. 8, when the closing reception will be held. She extends a warm welcome to all to attend.