HWS News
18 March 2025 • Arts • Research Examining Art Through a Lesbian Lens
Opportunity to nationally showcase Honors project on queer art history helps further excitement for postgraduate study.
Adriana Croce ’25 recently presented her Honors project on the lesbian gaze in American visual arts since 1970 at the College Arts Association Conference in New York City, the nation’s largest gathering of art historians, artists, designers and curators. This year’s conference included more than 300 sessions, workshops and events, with content representing a range of fields, approaches to pedagogy and social justice issues.
“Being in a space with so many established and emerging art historians and artists was incredibly exciting!” says Croce, an Art History and French and Francophone studies double major. “It was so inspiring to attend conference panels on LGBTQ+ visual art and be surrounded by other queer art historians. It was such an uplifting and supportive space and allowed others to provide insight on my project that I aim to incorporate moving forward.”
"During her talk “Desire and the Lesbian Gaze: Shifting Intimacy Narratives in Lesbian Visual Arts,” Croce examined queer theory, shifting intimacy narratives and gaze theory in relation to artists Catherine Opie and Mickalene Thomas. She studied the lesbian gaze as it appears in their oeuvres, arguing that it revolves around subverting hegemonic power structures and traditional notions of the gaze.
Croce also says the conference reaffirmed her love for Art History and furthered her excitement for graduate school. She will attend Concordia University in Montreal, Canada in the fall to earn her master’s in Art History.
Croce chose queer art history for her Honors work as it “centers these perspectives that exist at the margins of heteronormative culture and reinforces the presence of the LGBTQ+ community in the past, present and future of art,” she says. “This topic is very important to me personally, especially in our current political moment. Queer people deserve representation.”
Associate Professor of Art and Architecture Angelique Szymanek, her Art History and Honors project advisor, attended the conference with Croce. “She is a dedicated and hard-working student whose commitment to her studies is exceptional. It felt appropriate to witness her share her research on such a respected platform, the rightful culmination of several years of striving to push herself to her fullest potential.”
Croce says it was Szymanek’s “Art and Censorship” course that introduced her to contemporary art history and piqued her interest in how marginalized groups represent themselves visually. She says Szymanek also encouraged her to submit her work to the College Arts Association.
On campus, Croce is a co-director at the Provenzano Student Art Gallery, a gallery assistant at the Davis Gallery, a Critical Museum Studies student ambassador and a member of the Laurel Society. Croce will present her paper on campus during the Senior Symposium on April 23.
