Community: feminist.bloggers@brooklynmuseum

The Metropolitan Museum of Art just opened a new photography exhibition on Tuesday, featuring artist Shigeyuki Kihara. Similarly to artist Yasumasa Morimura, Kihara puts herslf into various roles in her self-porature, often blurring the lines of gender. Kihara was born in Samoa, where it she is considered Fa’a fafine, the official third gender. Fa’a fafine means “in the manner of a woman” in Samoan and is specific to children born male who later take up the gender roles of women. The exhibition, Shigeyuki Kihara: Living Photographs, will be on view at the Met until February 1st.

(Shigeyuki Kihara, Fa’a fafine: In the Manner of a Woman, 2004-05, C-type photograph, edition of, 5, 80 x 60 cm, photograph: coylehall, post production: coylehall & Bronga Rhind Eglese. Courtesy of Sherman Galleries.)
Assemblage opens this Saturday, October 11th, at Galerie Laurent Godin in Paris. The show will feature the work of Scoli Acosta, Lamarche et Ovize, Corinne Marchetti, Vincent Olinet, and Hsia-Fei Chang. Hsia-Fei Chang contributed a performance titled Strawberry Wine to Global Feminisms here at the Brooklyn Museum in 2007. This feminist performance artist also does photography and installation, so if you happen to be around in the next month, Assemblage will be up until November 15th!

(Hsia-Fei Chang, Strawberry Wine, Performance at the Brooklyn Museum, March 25, 2007, for Global Feminisms. Image courtesy of the artist.)

Surface Library in Easthampton, New York, just opened Figuratively Speaking, a group exhibition featuring the work of Abby Abrams, Ann Brandeis, Eunice Golden, Barbara Groot, Richard MacDonald, Jerry Schwabe, and Thomas J. Shelford. This dedicated feminist artist and activist was a founder of Soho20, a women artist-run gallery here in New York in 1973. Her body-landscape painting was quite controversial at that time, shunned by many museums and galleries. This exhibition will be on view until November 2nd.

(Eunice Golden. CRUCIFIXION #1, 1969. Courtesy of the artist.)

MANEATER just opened at Deitch Projects on Grand Street in Manhattan. This solo exhibition by Aurel Schmidt takes some of the more abject elements in nature, as well as society’s waste, and uses them to transform Grecian busts, portraits, and Modernist works. This exhibition will be up until November 1st. Also, at Deitch Projects in Long Island City tonight, there will be a talk with Swoon, Ann Messner and Kiki Smith, moderated by Carlo McCormick. The talk will be from 7-9pm, and will cover Swoon’s current exhibition, Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea and Todd Chandler’s upcoming film FLOOD, shot from Swoon’s sculptural boats.

(Aurel Schmidt, Medusa, 2007, Pencil on paper, 18 x 28 inches. Courtesy of Deitch Projects.)

Paula Wilson’s first solo exhibition in New York opens today at Bellwether Gallery. The Stained Glass Ceiling features Wilson’s work over the past three years, during which time she used printmaking, painting, and collage to question the role of the decorative in the lives of women and art. The Stained Glass Ceiling will be up until November 15th.

(Paula Wilson, Lady, 2008, 120 x 72 inches, Mixed media on paper mounted to canvas with wood slats. Courtesy of Bellwether Galley.)

Don’t forget feminist artist and author Sabra Moore is giving a talk in the Forum this Saturday from 2-4pm! She will be discussing her new book, ON THE MOVE: A Memoir of the Women’s Art Movement, in conjunction with the exhibition, Migrate, that she just organized for Gallery 128 in Manhattan. Click here for more info!