Community: feminist.bloggers@brooklynmuseum

Opening…

Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia: Sexe, humour et flamenco, opening March 18th at Passage de Retz, recalls the origins of gender-bending in avant-garde photography. The show includes both original works and reconstitutions of lost pieces. Tate Modern also hosts a concurrent show of these three artists’ work, The Moment Art Changed Forever, through May.

(Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp as Rrose Sélavy, gelatin silver print, 1920-21. Courtesy: Philadelphia Museum of Art.)

*While Duchamp, Man Ray, and Picabia are, of course, universally recognized and respected artists, the gender-inverted self-portraits of the lesser-known female artist Claude Cahun, at times associated with the French surrealists, are also definitely worth checking out!

Beginning March 20th, Jersey City Museum presents two intriguing new shows: SPRAWL and (Re)possessed. In depicting the manifestations of urban, suburban, and rural sprawl particular to New Jersey, artists included in SPRAWL touch upon larger issues of the treatment and transformation of public space. (Re)possessed, on the other hand, looks inward in order to transform the museum’s interior gallery space. Fiber artist Xenobia Bailey has collaborated with several artists and designers to create an environment that challenges the boundaries between fine and decorative arts.

(Valeri Larko, Convergence, oil on linen, 2007, image associated with the SPRAWL exhibition. Courtesy: the artist and Jersey City Museum.)

Now Open…

Global Feminisms artist Elke Krystufek shows Mother Observing at Venice’s Galeria il Capricorno through April 1st. In this new edition to Krystufek’s coherent body of work, the artist conflates past and present by portraying literary mothers Virginia Woolf and Caroline Muhr in her contemporary style. (For more information, contact galleriailcapricorno@libero.it)

(Elke Krystufek, Cyberlovers; Desire; Survivor, 2004. Courtesy: Galerie Akinci.)

Mizuma Art Gallery hosts Sissi: “Over the glance ties the rope” as the artist’s first solo show in Japan. Sissi regularly uses woven materials, brilliant colors, and repetition to create ecstatic sculptures and performances. Through April 5th.

(Sissi, detail of Over the glance ties the rope, 2008. Courtesy: Mizuma Art Gallery.)

Amy Cutler, known especially for her meticulous paintings and drawings of women, presents Alterations, her first major work of sculpture, at Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects through April 5th.

(Amy Cutler, two installation views of Alterations, 120 cast and painted figures, 2007. Courtesy: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid.)