Community: feminist.bloggers@brooklynmuseum

Maura Reilly and Roseanne Barr, June 25, 2007. Photo © Adam Husted

Dear Feminists,

I’m giddy with excitement when I tell you that one of the greatest comic geniuses of all time visited us here yesterday at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. She came–as a self-declared, longstanding feminist–to see the Center and Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party. Ms. Chicago–who is an old friend of Roseanne’s–was there to give her a personalized tour of the masterpiece, after which I showed her our inaugural exhibition Global Feminisms. She was delighted with it all! As was no surprise to any of us, she was brilliant, warm, and delightful to be with.

Thank you for the visit, Roseanne. Come again–and bring friends!!!

LAST CALL! Global Feminisms, the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art’s inaugural exhibition, is coming to a close on July 1st. If you haven’t seen the show yet, or if you’d like to see it all over again, come visit during this final week. If you can’t make it out, Global Feminisms moves to the Davis Museum at Wellesley College in the fall. (Photo: Pilar Albarracin, still from Forbidden Singing (Prohibido el cante), 2000)

Also check out…

Katarzyna Kozyra is featured in the group show Not Your Parents’ MTV: Music Videos From Hell at Postmasters Gallery, New York (June 28- July 28) . She will be screening her videos Cheerleader and Diva Reincarnation.

Role Exchange at Sean Kelly Gallery, June 29-August 3. A group show featuring some of our favorites: Marina Abramovic, Laurie Anderson, Sophie Calle, Cindy Sherman, and many others. The show brings together a varying set of works that address questions of identity, gender, and society. (Photo: Marina Abramovic, Role Exchange. 1975; published in 1994. 2 black and white photographs with 1 letter press text panel)

She Was Born to be My Unicorn, curated by Amy Kellner and featuring too many cool artists to name, opens June 28th and runs through July 28th at Smith Stewart on Stanton St., NYC.

Undressed: Works by Kate Kretz at the Belger Art Center, Kansas City, Missouri. Through September 7. An exhibition of two series by Kretz- Hair Embroideries and Psychological Clothing. In the Psychological Clothing series, Kretz creates clothing for parts of the body and intimate situations. Her work is unusual, arresting, and explores the psychology of her imagined feminine subjects and anatomy. (Photo: Passive/Repressed Anger Dress (detail) found dress, underlayer hand embroidered with passive phrases (I’m sorry… I don’t mind…”etc.), beginning at the throat as white text, getting darker as it descends and “knots” in the stomach. size 8. 2002, courtesy of the artist.)

Global Feminisms artist Ingrid Mwangi works as a collaborative team with Robert Hutter as the German-based artist collective INGRIDMWANGIROBERTHUTTER. Check out the duo’s first solo New York exhibition Select Videos 2006/2007 at BRIC’S Rotunda Gallery, running from June 20th to July 20th. (Image: INGRIDMWANGIROBERTHUTTER, still from Being Bamako, 2007)

Other cool shows to see this week (as researched and recommended by our amazing intern Lauren Palmor) include:

The Great Cover-Up: American Rugs on Beds, Tables, and Floors at the American Folk Art Museum, on view through September 9th. This show contains work by dozens of women artists, many who were previously unidentified or named as “anonymous.” A fascinating and colorful look into the world of American women’s crafts from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Roberta Smith’s review in the N.Y. Times highlights the show’s feminist spin.

Amelia Earhart: Image and Icon on view through September 9th. This exhibition at the ICP makes a connection between Earhart as a historic icon and images of her public persona. Before you see the show, you can brush up on her story with a visit to her page our Dinner Party Database.

Circa 1970, a show of works by Lynda Benglis and Louise Bourgeois opens on June 21st at Cheim and Read gallery. The exhibition focuses on works produced by the two artists from the 1960s and 70s. You can also learn about Lynda Benglis on our Feminist Art Base before you visit the show! (Image: Cheim and Read)

Also…

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum is celebrating its tenth anniversary! 2007 has been declared “The Year of O’Keeffe” by the Santa Fe city council, as well as the New Mexico state legislature. Join in the celebration by attending some of the amazing upcoming events at the O’Keeffe Museum. Learn more about O’Keeffe in our Dinner Party Database. (Image: Alfred Stieglitz. Georgia O’Keeffe, 1919. Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. LC-USZC4-6228)

Please join us for an installment of The Dinner Party Lecture Series:
Craig Barnes–In Search of the Lost Feminine

Saturday, June 30th, 2007, 2-4 p.m.
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Forum, 4th Floor

Craig S. Barnes lectures on his book In Search of the Lost Feminine: Decoding the Myths That Radically Reshaped Civilization. He discusses the earliest civilizations in which women and the environment were at the center, the contributing factors in the creation of patriarchal societies, which have dominated for 3,500 years, and the dramatic effect this change has had on Western history.

A book signing on the first floor will immediately follow the lecture.

Craig S. Barnes, a former lawyer for women’s rights and the environment, and international negotiator/mediator, is an author, playwright, and essayist. In Search of the Lost Feminine: Decoding the Myths That Radically Reshaped Civilization is available through Fulcrum Books. He is also the author of Growing Up True: A Memoir.

(Image: Molded Breasts Linked by Ever Continuing Spirals that Decorated the Ceiling around All Four Walls of a Large Hall at the Palace at Zakros. Herakleion Museum, Crete. From In Search of the Lost Feminine, by Craig S. Barnes, Golden, Colorado: Fulcrum Publishing, 2006)

We are a bit late reporting on this bit of news, but feel it is an important Alert! nonetheless. In the recent Ledbetter v. Goodyear case, the Supreme Court ruled–by a one vote margin–that an employee must file a wage discrimination complaint within 180 days of the act of discriminatory pay. This decision greatly effects women, who are all too often the victims of such discrimination (currently only earning 77 cents to every dollar earned by a man) and who, like Lilly Ledbetter in this case, perhaps do not want to rock the boat in a new job. Does it not take time to determine if you are being discriminated against? To learn more about this case, here are some links: National Women’s Law Center; National Organization for Women; PBS; Ms. Magazine; and Women’s E-News.

On a related note, ABC news did a report back in April on the Wage Gap and I was interested in the empowerment message in the article–ask for what you are worth! Certainly its not that simple, but have a read!

We would like to CONGRATULATE our former Exhibitions Research Assistant, Amy Brandt, on her new position as Assistant to the Directors of Arts Administration at Pace Wildenstein Gallery. Amy spent a year here at the Center working amazingly hard on the Global Feminisms exhibition. We are forever indebted to her and wish her all the best at her new post! We miss you Amy!

After receiving her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Art History and French from the University of Michigan, Amy Brandt lived and studied in Paris, France, for three years. She obtained a License degree from the University of Paris IV-La Sorbonne in 2003 and went on to complete a Master of Arts degree, also in Art History, from Tufts University in 2005. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Modern and Contemporary Art History at the Graduate Center of City University of New York. During her undergraduate years, she worked as a Preparator’s Assistant for the University of Michigan Museum of Art. In Massachusetts, she was a Graduate Assistant at the Tufts University Art Gallery and an intern at the List Visual Arts Center. Prior to coming to the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center, Brandt was Curatorial Assistant to Lisa Dennison, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, for New York, New York: Fifty Years of Art, Architecture, Photography, Film, and Video (July 2006), co-curated by Germano Celant for the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: 45 years of art and feminism opens today at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, curated by our dear friend Xabier Arakistain. The show which features works from such artists as Yoko Ono, Orlan, Cindy Sherman and the Guerrilla Girls, to name only a few, is on view through September 9th. The catalogue has some amazing essays, including one by our own Maura Reilly (she’s there now!); they’re only printing 1000 copies so be sure to try to get one! (Image: Guerrilla Girls, Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?, 1989)

Another amazing group show opening this week is Eccentric Bodies: An Exhibition of Works by Artists with a Feminist Gaze, being presented at the Institute for Women and Art, Mason Gross School of the Arts Galleries, at Rutgers. The exhibition, curated by Judith K. Brodsky and Ferris Olin, features the work of Harriet Casdin-Silver, Bailey Doogan, Brenda Goodman, Orlan, Ernestine Ruben, Bernie Searle and Linda Stein. The opening reception is Thursday, June 14th and the show runs through August 3rd. (Image: Berni Searle, Still, 2001)

Orlan is having a very busy summer… she is also having a retrospective, Orlan: Le Récit,
at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint-Etienne Métropole running through August 26, 2007.

If Orlan and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang are not enough to get you to Europe this summer, don’t forget the 52nd Venice Biennale, entitled Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense, which opened on June 10th, curated by Robert Storr. There is some heavy-hitting feminist power in the line-up including: Louise Bourgeois, Sophie Calle, Valie Export, Jenny Holzer, Emily Jacir, Elizabeth Murray, Susan Rothenberg, Nancy Spero, Kara Walker; and there are others in other pavilions such as, Zoulikha Bouabdellah in the African Pavilion, Melanie Manchot in the New Forest Pavilion, Yin Xiuzhen in the Giardino delle Vergini, Arsenale, to name a few. (Image: Zoulikha Bouabdellah, Dansons (Let’s Dance), 2003)

Yin Xiuzhen is also showing in NYC this summer… she is in a group show, What About Sculpture?, up through July 19th at Chambers Fine Art.

Four local artists will be having a show at Pratt Manhattan Gallery, Four Artists: Work by Recent Pratt Alumni. The show features the fantastic feminist work of Fay Ku, Rossana Martinez, Jean Shin and Swoon. It is curated by Eugenie Tsai of P.S. 1, and runs from June 15-July 28 then from September 4-15th. I must, as a Pratt Alum myself, wish them a lot of luck with the show! They are very talented women–check them out!

**Dont Miss**
Another local show of interest that is CLOSING THIS WEEK is Women’s Work, an exhibit of artist’s books by Robbin Ami Silverberg at the Brooklyn Central Library, Mezzanine Gallery, Grand Army Plaza, through June 16th. (Image: Robbin Ami Silverberg, from Women’s Work exhibit, 2007)

And, finally, speaking of books, the folks at the University of Minnesota just sent us a copy of the book, WARM: A Feminist Art Collective in Minnesota, by Joanna Inglot, which is the catalogue from the show last summer at the Weisman Art Museum, Minnesota, and WOW is it amazing! What a wealth of academic and visual information! The book is available through the University of Minnesota Press… Click Here, I’ve made it easy for you; buy it! It rocks!

Check out more Global Feminisms artists having solo shows…

• Julika Rudelius’ show, Forever, featuring a video installation and a selection of Polaroids runs through July 14th 2007 at Swiss Institute, New York. In Forever, which she filmed in the Hamptons, Rudelius casts five American women who pose for the camera in manicured backyards as they are interviewed on topics ranging from beauty and privilege to plastic surgery and aging. She showed clips and spoke about the work during her artist talk at our opening—check it out! (Image: Julika Rudelius, still from Forever, 2006. Courtesy of the artist)

• Also Sonia Khurana’s exhibition, Still Moving Image, runs through July 28th at Jousse Entreprise gallery, in Paris, in collaboration with Enrico Navarra Gallery. It is the artist’s first solo exhibition in France. The gallery invited Sonia to develop and produce a new piece or body of work to show in the gallery within the larger context of her recent works.

Some other cool shows to see that feature amazing feminist artists are…

• 2 x 4 featuring work by Janine Antoni, Georg Herold, Reinhard Mucha and Rachel Whiteread at Luhring Augustine running through June 16th. You can also see Janine’s profile on our Feminist Art Base! (Image: Janine Antoni, Grope, 1990, pockets from men’s work pants. Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine Gallery)

• Florence Lynch Gallery is featuring video work by Gabriele Stellbaum through June 16th.

• Lehmann Maupin Gallery is having the first NY solo exhibition for the Japanese artist Mr. (exhibition of the same name) running through June 23rd.

• Another exhibition opening this week is June Bride at Yossi Milo Gallery featuring works by Diane Arbus, Nan Goldin, Nikki S. Lee and Loretta Lux, among others. The show, which provides an uncommon look at a common practice, the marriage ceremony, in an assembly of unconventional wedding photographs, opens June 7th (reception from 6-8pm) and runs though August 17th.

• Also, check out, Let’s Rock, featuring the video and animation works of Itziar Barrio, curated by Chavisa Woods, at A Gathering of the Tribes Gallery in the Lower East Side. (Image: Itziar Barrio, still from the video Let’s Rock, 2007. Courtesy of Tribes Gallery.)

• If you can take a trip to Woodstock, I would recommend seeing the exhibition curated by Nancy Azara at the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Paths Real and Imagined, where 30 sculptors, mostly from the Catskill region (and mostly women), were invited to design what they perceived to be a path of any kind on the grounds. I was thrilled to see that a former professor of mine, Gillian Jagger, will be installing work! This is an amazing opportunity to see her work as her pieces are usually quite large and thus are too infrequently shown. The exhibit opens June 9th and runs through October 8th, 2007. (Image: Nancy Azara, Time/Path, 2007. Courtesy of the artist.)

• If you can take a trip to California, I would check out Women Artists Then + Now at Track 16 Gallery, Bergamont Station, in Santa Monica. The show features such artists as Leslie Labowitz, Robin Mitchell, June Wayne, Faith Wilding and Harriet Zeitlin, to name a few, and closes June 30th with a panel discussion from 7-9pm.

• And if you find yourself in Germany…The Martha Rosler Library opened June 2nd at the seminar/residency program, unitednationsplaza, in Berlin, and is comprised of approximately 7,700 titles from the artist’s personal collection. The Library, which traveled from a storefront setting on Ludlow St. in NYC, in 2005, to Frankfurter Kunstverein and MuHKA, Antwerp, will remain on view in Berlin through August 31st and will then travel to Institut national d’histoire de l’art in Paris in November. There is no borrowing, only on-site research and events, such as live readings from the collection. The bibliography, currently in process, can be accessed online. Read more about this exciting project.

Finally, we’d like to belatedly thank the Tate Modern for their initiative to “rectify the gender gap” in their collection. An article by Arifa Akbar, in The Independent, published coincidentally on the week of the opening of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, describes the Tate’s drive to purchase more work by women as one that seeks to address areas where women artists may have historically been neglected. Read more…