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Opening…

Converge: Works by Ana Mendieta and Hans Breder, 1970-1980, opening January 31st at Galerie Lelong’s New York location, offers a chance to see another side of the iconic art goddess Ana Mendieta through the work of her teacher-turned-lover, Hans Breder. As the first show to examine the convergences and divergences of the artists’ practices while together, it will prove interesting to compare, in particular, Breder’s treatment of Mendieta’s body with her representations of her own body in performance and documentation.

(Hans Breder, stills from Transfigured, 1970, 16mm film experiment transferred to DVD. Courtesy: Galerie Lelong.)

Solitaire, work by Lee Lozano, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, and Joan Semmel opens February 2nd at the Wexner Center for the Arts. While Semmel, Plimack Mangold, and Lozano are all of the same second-wave feminist generation (in the 1960’s each artist chose New York as her scene) and they all paint beautifully, similarities among the three artists may unapologetically end there: hence the title of the show, Solitaire. This curatorial concept, however, intends to engage with contemporary painting’s understanding of itself in terms of both realism and feminism. The show also slyly questions the viewer’s interpretation of groupings of work, asking her to think of each piece as individual rather than just relational.

(Joan Semmel, Knees Together, 2003. Courtesy: Wexner Center for the Arts.)

Now Open…

Feel refreshed by the smart, funny, and agressively feminist work in Vaginal Rejuvenation, a collaborative show by L.A. artists Amanda Ross-Ho and Kirsten Stoltmann. Ross-Ho’s work complements Stoltmann’s and vice versa, making for a delightfully perverse extravaganza of what seems like ten years worth of two friends’ inside-jokes. Stoltmann’s ironic, overly crafty collages and Ross-Ho’s fresh use of porn are a hilarious mix. Showing in New York, at Guild and Greyshkul, through February 16th.

(Amanda Ross-Ho and Kirsten Stoltmann, Vaginal Rejuvenation Poster, 2007. Courtesy: Guild and Greyshkul.)

Girls on the Verge: Portraits of Adolescence showcases contemporary photography’s renewed interest in that awkward phase between girlhood and womanhood. On view are works by some impeccable female photographers such as Sally Mann, Hellen van Meene, Lauren Greenfield, and Tina Barney. The exhibition runs through February 24th at the Art Institute of Chicago.

(Lauren Greenfield, Alli, Annie, Hannah, and Berit, All 13, before the First Big Party of the Seventh Grade, Edina, Minnesota, 1998. Courtesy: The Art Institute of Chicago.)

alongside us, new photographs by Global Feminisms and Global Feminisms Remix artist Maria Friberg, remains on view at Galleri Charlotte Lund, of Stockholm, through March 8th. Friberg’s new images gracefully question, from a feminist perspective, man’s place in nature as well as his sense of self in the face of potentially restrictive patriarchal standards of masculinity. Friberg will also have work in the ARCO artfair in Madrid, February 13th-18th.

(Maria Friberg, alongside us #5, 2007. Courtesy: Maria Friberg, mariafriberg.com.)