Community: feminist.bloggers@brooklynmuseum

As part of September public programming here at the Center for Feminist Art, Ghada Amer and Reza Farkhondeh stopped by the Forum on Saturday, September 20th to discuss their evolving body of collaborative works with moderator Laurie Ann Farrell, the Executive Director of Exhibitions at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Both artists began the talk with a showing of An Indigestible Dessert, 2008, a recent video recording of a performance by Amer and Farkhondeh, featuring the creation of a cake with the imprints of Tony Blair and George W. Bush, and its eventual destruction via a sledgehammer wielding Amer that left the audience captivated and hungry…for more of their art that is! During the screening of the video, an amused Amer fiddled with the strand of thread attached to her museum badge, reminding the audience of her numerous embroidered creations only footsteps away in the galleries.

(Laurie Ann Farrell of Savannah College of Art and Design asks artists Ghada Amer and Reza Farkhondeh questions about their collaborative work. Photograph by Jessica Shaffer.)

After this presentation, Amer energetically discussed how her eight year collaboration with Farkhondeh first began. In 2000, after a period of crippling depression, Farkhondeh leaned on his good friend Amer for support, and moved into her studio. Without her permission or consent, he started to literally “improve” on Amer’s works in progress while she was out, adding layers of paint to the canvases and drawings! To say the least, Amer was surprised when she discovered Farkhondeh’s additions to her pieces, but was so intrigued by her friend’s provocation on her works that she continued to let him participate, and together they coined the acronym RFGA(Riza Farkhondeh, Ghada Amer) to use as their signature.

In the years following, the artists continued their collaborations in tandem, each working on his or her own contributions in their separate locales. Farkhondeh would paint something on a piece, or use tape rather than paint as his medium, and send it off to Amer who would perhaps add an embroidered section or stencil to the work. The years of their collaboration included a stint at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute, where they completed a series of drawings which were later shown at the Kukje Gallery in Seoul in 2007 and at the Tina Kim Gallery here in New York in 2008. The duo currently resides as artists-in-residence at Pace Prints in Manhattan which marks the first time they have ever worked together face to face.

(RFGA, Mosaic Memory of Tongues, 2007. Acrylic, embroidery, and gel medium on canvas. Currently on view at the Brooklyn Museum in Ghada Amer: Love Has No End.Photo courtesy of the artist, and Gagosian Gallery.)

When asked how working together has changed their own individual work, Amer commented that she has definitely noticed elements of RFGA making their way into her own, individual style. In a rather poignant moment that marked the end of the discussion, Farkhondeh remarked that working with Amer has opened his mind and allowed him to become a viewer of his own work, seeing it in a different light than before the pair’s collaboration.

Two works by RFGA are featured in Ghada Amer: Love Has No End. Don’t forget to take advantage of this amazing retrospective of Ghada Amer’s work, curated by Maura Reilly, Curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, before it closes on October 19th!

Cecily Brown’s solo exhibition just opened this weekend at the Gagosian Gallery. Brown combines the figurative and abstract to create her paintings, which often contain a sexual subtext. This show features a series of paintings much smaller than Brown’s usually large scale and will be on view until October 25th.

(Cecily Brown, Untitled (#38), 2007. Oil on linen, 12-1/2 x 17 inches. Courtesy of Gagosian Gallery.)

The first part of A.I.R Gallery: The History Show, just opened last week at the Tracey/Barry Gallery at NYU’s Bobst Library. This multi-part exhibition features artwork and archival materials from A.I.R.’s opening in 1972 to present, and will include October and November openings at the A.I.R Gallery’s new location on Front Street in DUMBO. This is a great opportunity to learn more about the first artist-run, not-for-profit art gallery for women artists in the United States.

(Image from A.I.R. Gallery: The History Show. Courtesy of A.I.R Gallery.)

The Myth of Loneliness, featuring artist Amy Wilson, just opened at BravinLee Programs in Manhattan. With a style that is reminiscent of a long forgotten childhood methodology, Wilson uses watercolor and text bubbles to unfold her narratives. This exhibition will be open to the public until October 18th.

(Amy Wilson, It was harder for girls, I think, 2007. 5 1/2 x 7 inches, watercolor on paper. Courtesy of the artist.)

PASSWORDS 5. Our Bodies, Our Selves, an exhibition whose title references the 1970’s health book written by feminist activists, just opened at Centro Cultural Montehermoso in Vitoria-Gastiez, Spain. This group show includes the artwork of Trisha Baga, Pauline Boudry & Nao Bustamante, Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, Leah Gilliam, K8 Hardy & Wynne Greenwood, Marriage (Math Bass & Wu Ingrid Tsang), Alex McQuilkin. The 8 videos featured in this exhibition will be up until February 1st, so if you’re in the area between now and then, definitely add this one to your docket!

(Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, Uh-Ohtopia, 2007. Courtesy of Montehermoso .)

Patricia Barube: Paintings, Drawings and Monoprints will be closing this week at Soho20 Gallery. Barube uses the human figure to investigate familial relationships and events in her paintings, and even creates a portrait of an ancient Greek fertility goddess in the work pictured below.

(Patricia Barube, Ancient Greek Doll, 2008, Oil on canvas. Courtesy of Soho20 Gallery.)

Steve DeFrank: Mirror, Mirror, currently on view at Margaret Thatcher Projects, is deceptively playful as it confronts stereotypes about homosexuality. DeFrank has embraced his new medium of casein, rather than the lite-brite, which he used so often in the past, to create both sculptural and graffiti-like works. Check this show out before it closes on October 18th!

(Steve DeFrank, Fairy Nice, 2007. Casein on panel, 48″ x 48″. Courtesy of Thatcher Projects.)

Echo just opened Tuesday at Cheim and Reid and features recent work by the unparalleled feminist artist, Louise Bourgeois. This exhibition features a collection of her recent sculptural work, cast from discarded clothing, and also a series of wet on wet goaches that depict the processes of motherhood. Echo will be open to the public until November 1st.

(Louise Bourgeois, Installation view of Echo, 2008. Courtesy of Cheim and Reid.)

The Guerilla Girls and Brainstormers invaded Chelsea this past weekend!!! A veritable street action for feminists and anti-feminists alike, participants were invited to fill out postcards mad lib style and distribute them to all galleries showing mostly male art. Anyone who thinks that feminist art exhibitions have become too plentiful and are a sign of discrimination against male artists were invited to join the picket line of the newly formed protest group MAN (Male Art Now). Did you participate in the Guerrilla Girls/Brainstormers action? If so, we want to hear about it! Please share your comments with us below!

(Mad libs and picket signs for the invasion of Chelsea. Image courtesy of Kathe Kallowitz.)

This Tuesday, September 16th, NYU’s Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality will be hosting a talk titled (Un)Patriot Acts: Art, Activism and State Power from the ‘Culture Wars’ to the ‘War on Terror’. Artists Karen Finley, Chitra Ganesh, Miriam Ghani, Steve Kurtz, and Rebecca Schneider and moderator Karen Shimakawa will discuss the politics of art and art-making in a post-9/11 society. This event is open to the public and will begin at 7pm at Jurow Hall, Silver Center, at 31 Washington Place on the first floor.

(Chitra Ganesh. The Awakening, 2004. Courtesy of the artist.)

Nalini Malani’s latest exhibition Listening to the Shades opens this Thursday, September 18th at the Arario Gallery in Manhattan. This exhibition features Malani’s recent work, forty-two new paintings and a sound installation based on the Greek myth of Cassandra, a symbol for the unfinished business of the feminist movement.

(Nalini Malani, Medea III, 2006, Acrylic and enamel reverse painting on acrylic sheet. Courtesy of Arario Gallery.)

New Blood, an exhibition including the art of Nao Bustamante, opened at Vertex List in Greenpoint, Brooklyn this past Saturday. Bustamante is a performance and video artist, and in the past has collaborated with the likes of legendary performance artist Coco Fusco. At the opening, Bustamante kept the packed gallery mesmerized with her piece, “Given Over to Want,” a twenty minute solo that explored issues of waste, consumption, and gender. The work of artists Sasha Dela, Sergio De La Torre, Double Happiness, Sujin Lee, Jeanne Verdoux and Lance Wakeling will also be featured in this exhibition which will be up until Sunday, October 12th.

(Nao Bustamante, Given Over to Want, 2008, performance, 20 min. Courtesy of Vertex List.)

(Joan Snyder, A Girl’s Life, 2008. acrylic, herbs, rosebuds, velvet, on burlap, 36 inches x 48 inches.)

Prominent feminist artist Joan Snyder has an exhibition of her political paintings on view at the Danforth Museum in Farmingham, MA through November 23rd, and will be giving an artist’s talk this Sunday, September 21 at noon. Check out the Museum’s website for more info!

Erika Rothenberg has a solo exhibition opening on Friday, September 5th at the Zolla/Lieberman Gallery in Chicago. Rothenberg uses humor in her artwork to get her political views across, sometimes photographing existing historical markers selected for their oddly inhumane inscriptions. This exhibition will be on view until October 11th.

(Erika Rothenberg, Los Alamos, 2005. Courtesy of the Artist.)

Swoon’s solo exhibition, Swimming Cities of the Switchback Sea, will be opening at Deitch Projects in Long Island City this Sunday, September 7th. In conjunction with the exhibition, swoon will be docking of a fleet of handmade sculptural ships at the waterfront adjacent to Deitch Projects, which will mark the exhibition’s opening in the early evening on the 7th. The opening will mark the end of the ships’ journey down the Hudson River from Troy, New York, where they were launched earlier this month.

(A collaborative exhibition by SWOON, Allison Corrie and Solovei, La Boca Del Lobo, installation at Blackfloor Gallery, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, 2006. Photo by Tod Seelie, courtesy of Deitch Projects.)

SOHO20 Gallery is opening a group exhibition this Thursday, September 4th. Six Chix will include artists Patricia Berube, Elizabeth Bisbing, Darla Bjork, Lucy Hodgson, Nelleke Nix and Madelaine Shellaby who explore the use of organic structures and female archetypes in this all woman show.

(Nelleke Nix, detail of Hair Wire installation, assembled 200. Mixed media: watercolor and stain on paper. 9 x 12 inches. Courtesy of SOHO20 Gallery.)

Artist Berni Searle, who’s work graced both Global Feminisms and Global Feminisms Remix here at the Center, has a solo exhibition opening at Michael Stevenson Gallery on September 4th. Bearni Searle, Recent Work will be up until the 11th of October and features three new videos shot in South Africa, Norway, and the Canary Islands.

(Berni Searle, Still from Alibama, 2008. Courtesy of Michael Stevenson Gallery.)

Hailing from Sweden, Annika Larsson is one of her home country’s most noteworthy artists. Using video to investigate the gaze and control in her work, Larsson’s most recent video, DOLLS continues along this same theme. DOLLS, currently on view at Andréhn-Schiptjenko Gallery in Stockholm, will be up until September 21st.

(Annika Larsson, Still from DOLLS, 2008. Courtesy of Andréhn-Schiptjenko Gallery.)

Heart Wall, by feminist artist Nancy Azara is in its final months! This 24ft sculpture installation can be viewed in the lobby at 340 Madison Avenue through October.

(Heart Wall, (6ft x 24ft x 3ft) carved and painted wood with gold and aluminum leaf and encaustic. Courtesy of the artist.)