BIO
Michelle Hartney is a Chicago based artist and activist. Her work focuses on gender rights, reproductive healthcare issues, and cancel culture. Utilizing fiber, ceramics, wood, embroidery, and social practice, she has completed projects that address birth control access in America, obstetric abuse, post partum PTSD, gender affirming care, and the roles racism and misogyny play in maternal health outcomes in the United States. Her interest in using art to address social issues began during her graduate studies in art therapy at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Hartney often offers cathartic actions for viewers to participate in. She has collaborated with the ACLU, Improving Birth, Association of Women's Health, Obstetric, & Neonatal Nurses, and Birth Monopoly to raise awareness about reproductive health issues.
Hartney has performed guerrilla activations at The Art Institute of Chicago and The Met, calling on cultural institutions to provide the truth about artists they represent and context about problematic work in their collections. Her work has been published in the New York Times, CNN, BBC Radio, The Guardian, Ms. Magazine, Vice, PBS, Women’s Health, Artnet News, and Hyperallergic.