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This panel examines the body as material conceptualization for artists in the 21st century. Perennially depicted throughout history, the body communicates vitality and experience. It is a common subject, especially indispensable in art performances, a medium taking center stage in the global arts community. However not so understood, may be the way in which artists today utilize and depict the body. From male and female nude bodies establishing agency, contextualizing the queer mother, to implied presence of the body, artists engage and complicate relationships with audiences. Robert Ladislas Derr chairs the discussion with an introduction to the body as subject, his use of his own body to manifest contexts, and forwards the panelists. Thea Fitz-James addresses the aesthetic critique of nudity as a binary between art and pornography. Dr. Jennie Klein examines Sheilah ReStack’s construction of queer maternal constructions. Through Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony, Holly Hughes asserts the body is its irreducible medium. Cynthia Pachikara tests visual attentiveness of the body in movement and space with silhouettes and shadows. Whether mediated, live, or suggested, the body instinctually captivates and connects, pulling us in.