Uterus Under Arrest by Gina McKlveen

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Artist Statement: Gina McKlveen is an artist and an attorney. She grew up in the Laurel Highlands of Western Pennsylvania, studied Studio Art and English Literature at Saint Vincent College, where she graduated in 2017. She then moved to Washington, DC to pursue her legal education at The George Washington University Law School (GW Law) and earned her Juris Doctorate there in 2021. Gina is licensed to practice law in Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York. In recent years, she has exhibited her artwork at American University’s Washington College of Law (WCL), and at local museums, namely the Southern Allegheny Museum of Art (SAMA) and the Greensburg Art Center. As President of GW Law’s Law Association for Women, Gina curated a virtual art exhibition at GW Law titled “NINE: Portraits of Women in the Law,” to honor the lives and legacies of female attorneys who had graduated from her alma mater. Her work, both in art and in law, aims to see people, especially women, holistically, while shedding light on issues, concerns, and experiences that are unique to women. Other works also explore themes of grief, memory, and loss. The pieces submitted to this Let’s Get Free exhibit were pulled from sketches Gina created while in college as she observed the first Trump administration take office, and before she became an attorney. Revisiting these sketches years later, during the second Trump administration, in addition to her artistic skills, Gina relied on her recollection and emotions to cases that she read as a law student, her reactions to recent Supreme Court decisions as a practicing attorney, and her own experiences in the courtroom. Refusing to separate her identity as both an artist and an attorney, Gina defies the arbitrary boxes we place around ourselves by incorporating both elements into a single piece that asks the viewer to decide right from wrong, justice from injustice, beauty verses discomfort, and art or law—you be the judge.