After-dark: when the B-girls roam

This series, “After-dark: when the B-girls roam,” plays with the idea of a B-girl or Bar-girl, a term used to describe women who would seduce men into buying them ‘drinks’ to get a payout from the bartender back in the day. In the Journal of the History of Sexuality, historian Amanda Littauer described a B-girl as a, “professional barroom exploitress”. We’re out here to swindle the men! But seriously, the dangers that exist for women and femme presenting people in a bar are pervasive and well known. And yet, a night at the dive bar remains a place for the ladies to gather. 

This body of work navigates the tension between visibility and vulnerability. Bars are spaces where women and femmes are often hyper-visible—watched, approached, and interrupted—yet claim power through humor and self-expression. The paintings reclaim these environments, reframing them through the lens of friendship, defiance, and autonomy. These bodies are not on display for male desire—they are protagonists, the players, the ones laughing the loudest.