Greer Lankton: Could It Be Love

Curated by Francis Schichtel and Jordan Weitzman

Could It Be Love presents an intimate and powerful photographic survey of Greer Lankton (1958–1996), the legendary East Village artist known for her uncannily lifelike dolls and fearless exploration of gender, beauty, and the body. Featuring 24 rarely seen photographs of her iconic dolls, taken by Lankton herself, this exhibition reveals her uncanny ability to imbue life into her sculpted figures as they lounge, gossip, and perform across New York’s gritty and gorgeous downtown scene.

This exhibition celebrates Lankton not only as a trailblazing trans artist but also as a completely original image-maker whose lens captured a world of oddballs, queer icons, and doll-like doppelgängers with equal parts glamour, melancholy, and wit. Presented in partnership with Magic Hour Press, Could It Be Love follows the release of the first major monograph on Lankton’s photographic work.

Discover the new exhibition, then mingle with fellow members over light refreshments in the lobby.

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Please note, parking is limited at our main lot at 505 Jacksonia Street, with additional street parking available in the surrounding neighborhood.

About Greer Lankton

Greer Lankton (1958 – 1996) was one of the most significant artists to have taken part in the revolutionary art scene of New York City’s East Village during the 1980s. Lankton grew up in Park Forest, IL, where she graduated a year early from high school to attend the Art Institute of Chicago from 1975 to1978. That year she moved to New York City and received her BFA from Pratt Institute in 1981. By then Lankton had secured her reputation as a leading figure in the social ferment of NYC in the 1980s through her visceral doll sculpture, and now lesser-known performances and minimalist soft sculpture.

Lankton’s drawings are frequently compared to that of the expressionist Egon Schiele and her dolls and their photographic portraits, to that of surrealist Hans Bellmer. Yet her experimental and multimedia work are located within a history of transfeminism, avant-garde performance and even pop-art, while at the same time is equally situated within a neo-punk canon and the Trash Trilogy of John Waters films - Pink Flamingos being her favorite.

Lankton’s exhibitions and performances included those at PS1, Club 57, Pyramid Club, Franklyn Furnace, Civilian Warfare Gallery, Hal Bromm and the Whitney Biennale, NYC. She also exhibited across the US and Europe, including the UK, Austria and the Venice Biennale, Italy. She exhibited her first full-scale installation artwork at the Mattress Factory Museum shortly before her untimely death in 1996.

About the monograph Could It Be Love

Edited by Nan Goldin, Francis Schichtel, and Jordan Weitzman, the book draws deeply from the Greer Lankton Archive, housed at Mattress Factory, to present over 100 of Lankton’s rarely seen photographs. These images offer an intimate and theatrical glimpse into Lankton’s inner world, one populated by glamorous oddballs, downtown legends, and avatars of her own making.

This exhibition is made possible by Teiger Foundation.