Riva Lehrer is an artist, writer, and curator who focuses on the socially challenged body and those who experience stigma due to cultural devaluing. Lehrer’s work aims to transform the way that variant body/minds are seen in mainstream culture and in turn, the way we see ourselves. Lehrer is best known for her representations of people with impairments, and those whose sexuality or gender identity have long been ostracized. Lehrer’s work has been exhibited in various venues including the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian, Yale University, the United Nations, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. She is the recipient of many awards including the 3Arts MacDowell Fellowship in Writing (2017); the Carnegie Mellon Fellowship at Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges (2014); and the Prairie Fellowship at Ragdale (2009). She is the recipient of the Critical Fierceness Grant (2009); 3Arts Foundation Grant (2008); and the Wynn Newhouse Award (2006). Lehrer’s memoir, Golem Girl, was published by One World/ Penguin/Random House, October 2020. She is represented by Regal Hoffmann & Associates, NYC. Lehrer is on faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is an instructor in Medical Humanities at Northwestern University.