Somebody Killed Me and Got Away With It

Michela Griffo

September 6 - November 1, 2025

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Stellarhighway is proud to present Somebody Killed Me and Got Away With It by Michela Griffo, featuring seven exquisite graphite drawings on paper from her newest series.

As both artist and activist, Griffo’s visual practice is deeply informed by her involvement in the Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, and Gay Rights Movements. Her work often explores the intersections of societal norms and the ramifications of the toxic structures they create. Through her paintings and drawings she addresses themes central to feminist and lesbian identity; giving voice to women’s desires and experiences including the lingering impact of her own childhood trauma and subsequent addictions. These intimate explorations reflect broader systemic issues, positioning Griffo’s art as a critical lens through which we can confront the deeply embedded inequalities and dysfunctions that persist within both ourselves, the family unit, and larger cultural frameworks.

Griffo’s new series probes the confluences of perception and reality via portraits of women who have been notoriously assassinated, murdered, executed, or slaughtered, either literally or metaphorically. Choosing subjects as far-ranging as Breonna Taylor and Emily Dickensen, Griffo pairs tender graphite renderings with a zeitgeist-capturing text concerning the sitter’s death, from that sitter’s perspective. These texts elicit subjective truths that surround their scenario that were hidden or twisted by their family, historians, or opportunistic media. Their reputations were shattered; their unique contributions claimed by others or ignored; and their passing, when mentioned, were, for some, made into fictionalized distortions. By spotlighting these individuals, Griffo communalizes their experiences and invites reflection on the disregard with which history has often portrayed the treatment of women.

Michela Griffo is an artist and activist who came of age on the piers and streets of New York City in the 1950s and ‘60s. She was an early member of the Redstockings and a founding member of Radicalesbians, Lavender Menace and the Gay Liberation Front. She was active in the Civil Rights, Women’s Rights and Gay Rights Movements, working closely with activists such as Yoruba Guzman and radical organizations such as The Young Lords. She risked her life with other queer and lesbian activists on the front lines to pave the way for younger generations to come out and live safe and productive lives.

Griffo exhibited widely in the 1970s and 1980s, and has been included in several important queer art shows, such as the seminal traveling group exhibition Art After Stonewall: 1969-1989 (Leslie-Lohman Museum, Columbus Museum, Frost Museum; 2019-2020) and Queer Forms (Katherine Nash Gallery, Minneapolis, MN, 2019). Historical exhibitions include those at The Alternative Museum, New York, NY; Soho Center for Visual Artists, New York, NY; Blum Helman Gallery, New York, NY; Josef Gallery, New York, NY; Alexander Milliken, New York, NY; Flint Institute of the Arts, Flint, MI; and, Aldrich Museum for Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at Stellarhighway, Brooklyn, NY; SPOKE Gallery, Boston, MA; Pen + Brush Gallery, New York, NY; and group shows at Amant Foundation, Brooklyn, NY; Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Leslie-Lohman Museum, New York, NY; Plaxell Gallery, Long Island City, NY; University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN; Housatonic Museum, Bridgeport, CT; Artists Space, New York, NY; and Exit Art, New York, NY. She has contributed work to fundraisers for Visual AIDS and The Lesbian Herstory Archives since inception. Griffo has been interviewed by Steve Dansky (The LGBT Pioneers Oral History Project), Mason Funk (Outwords Archive), Mike Balaban (stories from the LGBTQ Community), Andrew Rimby (Ivory Tower Boiler Room), August Bernadicou (LGBTQ History Project) and Mark Lynch (NPR/Boston Public Radio), as wel as the Arthur Dong Documentary for PBS and WGBH Boston “A Question of Equality: Outrage ‘69” (1995); and has been featured in ArtNews, The Brooklyn Rail, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe. Collections include Treadwell Corporation, Chemical Bank and the Leslie-Lohman Museum, and numerous private collections worldwide. The artist is currently based in New York.

Please contact Stellarhighway for more information.