Community: feminist.bloggers@brooklynmuseum

Tomoko Sawada (Japanese, b. 1977). Untitled, from the OMIAI series, 2001. Chromogenic photographs. On Loan from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections in honor of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, L2007.8.6.11, .16. Photographs courtesy of the artist and Zabriskie Gallery, New York.

With a little under a week left in March, the Museum ends a successful month of public programs and events in celebration of National Women’s History Month and marks the second anniversary of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art with Feminism Now: New Feminist Art Scholarship. This day-long conference highlights the work of a diverse group of emerging art historians and scholars of related disciplines whose work focuses on feminist approaches to research and analysis of contemporary visual arts and culture. Noted critic, curator, playwright, and arts activist Carey Lovelace delivers a keynote talk in the morning titled “Alternating Universes,” a discussion of how feminist theory has shaped contemporary society and what formulations we might expect it to take in the future. Following Carey’s talk will be two consecutive panels moderated by Karen Shimakawa, Associate Professor of Performance Studies at New York University and Johanna Burton, art historian and Associate Director and Senior Faculty Member at the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program in New York City. You can check out the Symposium’s page on the main website for more information about tomorrow’s program! RSVP to academic.programs@brooklynmuseum.org.

Ofri Cnaani: A Tale of Ends continues at (Le) Poisson Rouge Art Gallery until April 13th. Cnaani uses ink and spray-paint on mylar to explore power relations and gender roles in her series Two Dimensional Days, which is accompanied by a video installation and a site-specific installation at the gallery’s entrance in this unique artist’s solo exhibition.

(Exhibition announcement for Ofri Cnaani - A Tale of Ends. Courtesy of Le Poisson Rouge.)

The artwork of video and performance artist Shana Moulton has been included as part of the inaugural exhibition of the Bluecoat’s new gallery spaces, 4 x 4. Four Galleries, Four Exhibitions, One Venue, in Liverpool. Moulton plays an anxious hypochondriac who seeks solace in new age remedies and shamanic rituals in her video series Whispering Pines, selections from which are featured in this exhibition.

(Shana Mouton, Film still from Whispering Pines, 2002-2007. Courtesy of the Bluecoat.)

Diaristic at times, Amy Wilson’s work uses personal elements to address broader issues of femininity and politics. In Amy Wilson: “There are always such beautiful things…”, now in its final days at the Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, New Jersey, Wilson combines paper cutouts and text in both two and three dimensional formats to get her point across. This show ends March 29th.

(Installation view of Amy Wilson: “There are always such beautiful things…” Courtesy of Hunterdon Art Museum.)

Longtime feminist and advocate of gay and lesbian rights, Louise Fishman currently has a solo exhibition up at Cheim and Read in Chelsea. The show, titled Louise Fishman, displays a selection of the artist’s recent, large scale works, and will be on view until May 2nd.

(Louise Fishman, Paragraphs of Wind, 2008. Oil on canvas, 32 x 30 inches, 81.3 x 76.2 centimeters. Courtesy of Cheim and Read.)

2007 MacArthur Fellow, Joan Snyder brings abstract expressionism, feminism, and surface additives such as herbs and straw to her paintings in a way that is uniquely her own. Her work is currently on view in Joan Snyder: Selected Paintings at the Carl Solway Gallery in Cincinnati. The show runs until April 18th, so if you are in the area be sure to stop on by!

(Joan Snyder, Motherlove, 1999; Oil, acrylic, papier-mâché and wooden dowels on canvas; 73.5 x 85.5 inches. Courtesy of Carl Solway Gallery.)

Drawings and Watercolors, a group exhibition closing April 4th at Senior and Shopmaker Gallery in Manhattan, includes the work of Polly Apfelbaum, Wangechi Mutu, and Elizabeth Murray among others. Apfelbaum and Murray are also included in Burning Down the House: Building a Feminist Art Collection, which is in its final weeks here at the museum.

(Polly Apfelbaum, Plus 2 Posies, 2007. Marker on synthetic silk velvet, 28 1/2 x 22 inches. Courtesy Senior and Shopmaker Gallery.)

The artwork of writer/feminist/painter Mira Schor is currently up at Momenta Art in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In “Suddenly,” New Paintings by Mira Schor, the artist’s first solo-exhibition in New York in over a decade, Schor interprets language as image, representing a loss for words often created by personal and political happenings. This show will be up until April 20th.

(Mira Schor, From “Suddenly,” New Paintings by Mira Schor. Courtesy of Momenta Art.)

Carolee Schneemann: Painting, What it Became, curated by Maura Reilly, closes this Saturday, March 28th at P.P.O.W. Gallery in Chelsea. Be sure to make it over to see this insightful unification of Schneemann’s early, abstract paintings with her later, feminist artwork.

(Carolee Schneeman, War Mop , 1983, mixed media, Sculpture; 24 x 62 x 20 inches, TV: 12 x 18 x 10 inches. Courtesy of P.P.O.W. Gallery.)

Stephen Sollins: Letters Home also closes this Saturday at the Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans. Sollins combines found paper, envelopes, and embroidery to create quilt-like patterns in his work. Definitely worth a look if you happen to be in the area!

(Stephen Sollins, Jack’s House, 2008. Found printed paper and acetate from envelopes, 60 x 48 inches. Courtesy of Arthur Roger Gallery.)

This Friday is the last day to see Better Than Ever: Women Figurative Artists of the ‘70s SoHo Co-Ops at the Salena Gallery in Brooklyn. The exhibition’s next stop will be at the Dishman Art Museum in Beaumont, Texas, and then on to the Rowan University Art Gallery in the fall. Included in this group exhibition is Dotty Attie and Sylvia Sleigh, among others.

(Better Than Ever: Women Figurative Artists of the ‘70s SoHo Co-Ops announcement image. Courtesy of Salena Gallery.)

And if you haven’t already, don’t forget to check out Burning Down the House: Building a Feminist Art Collection before it closes April 5th!

Co-curator Maura Reilly, consultant Ellen Belcher, and the Halaf figurine.

During the planning stages of special exhibitions or permanent installations, it is a common practice in museums to involve consultants; scholars with specialized knowledge who assist the curators in researching objects. For The Fertile Goddess, we were very lucky to have Ellen Belcher as a volunteer consultant. Ellen came and spent a glorious and fun early September afternoon in storage with us looking at all the figurines and shared hours of editing with me on the labels and wall texts for the exhibition. She is an Ancient Near Eastern archaeologist and art historian whom I have known for years. We have been in classes and seminars together at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University and at Columbia University, where she is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Art History and Archaeology - along with working full time as a librarian at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Early in 2008, I attended a lecture at Columbia titled, “Embodying the Halaf: Prehistoric figurines from Northern Mesopotamia,” that Ellen gave on her dissertation topic. Co-curator of The Fertile Goddess Maura Reilly and I were already discussing the possibility of focusing on the Fertile Goddess for the next Herstory Gallery exhibition and featuring the Halaf period figurine from our collection. I came away from that lecture - and a subsequent one in May - with a greatly increased understanding of these figurines and other types that existed in Neolithic Mesopotamia. Ellen’s perspective was particularly important because of her work in the field; since 1995, she has excavated in Syria, Jordan and Turkey, where she has been a field supervisor and small finds specialist at the 6th millennium site of Domuztepe for the past decade. Many questions remain about the functions of these figurines in ancient societies and current scholarship has come to consider provenance and archaeological context crucial issues for any understanding of these objects.

Pondering the “Bird Ladies.”

I also was inspired by the work of another colleague (and good friend) in a more indirect way while I was researching our so-called Bird Lady figurines from Predynastic Egypt. Aware that other figurines types existed in Egypt during this period, I was able to see some actual examples In the Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egyptian galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with extremely informative chat labels written by Diana Craig Patch, an Associate Curator of Egyptian Art there. I felt that Diana, like Ellen, had thoughtfully framed the questions of function and interpretation that still surround these objects. The Predynastic period is one of Diana’s specializations and, having worked extensively in the field in Egypt, she has a strong understanding of archaeological background and issues. I was therefore delighted when both Ellen and Diana agreed to speak at a panel which will take place tomorrow in the Forum. This is a chance for them to show the numerous other types that were contemporary with the two earliest figurines in the exhibition, the Halaf figurine from Mesopotamia and the Bird Ladies from Egypt and to discuss their latest thoughts about the possible functions and interpretations of these objects. Perhaps they will also share their thoughts about being a feminist archaeologist in the 21st century.

A seminar with video artist Dara Birnbaum, will be held Thursday, March 5th at 7 pm at the Whitney Museum of American Art. A pioneer in the appropriation of popular television imagery, Dara Birnbaum probes and subverts conventional viewing patterns, narrative structures, and pop icons to address the ideological and aesthetic character of mass media. Spanning four decades and varying styles, her work reveals a sustained engagement with media’s complex and dominant societal presence. This evening, Birnbaum will discuss her attempts to find alternative expressions that “talk back” to mainstream media’s penetration of – and even intrusion on–public and private life. To buy tickets to this event online, click here.

(Dara Birnbaum, still from Pop-Pop Video, 1980. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix.)

CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN: Performance Photographs from the 1970’s is currently on view at Carolina Nitsch Contemporary Art in Chelsea. I had a chance to check out the show this week, and found it to be a great opportunity to learn more about this legendary feminist artist. This exhibition will be up until March 28th.

(Carolee Schneemann, Parallel Axis, 1973. Courtesy of Carolina Nitsch Contemporary Art.)

The A.I.R. Gallery 8th Biennial Exhibition, curated by Lilly Wei, opens Thursday, March 5th and will be up until March 29th. In conjunction with the exhibition, there will be a panel discussion on March 11th at 7pm titled The Market: Women Artists from Studio to Collection with panelists Helen Allen Founder & Owner, PULSE art fair; Rocio Aranda Alverado, curator, Jersey City Museum; Florence Lynch Gallery and artist Mimi Smith at The Tribeca Performing Arts Center. For a complete list of artists included in this exhibition, as well as more info on the panel click here.

(Enid Crow, Chuck, Restaurant Worker, self-portrait from the series Happy Workers, 2008, 30” x 22”. Courtesy of A.I.R. Gallery.)

Home Sweet Home, curated by Ombretta Agro Andruff, is currently up at Dorsky Gallery in Long Island City, Queens. This exhibition explores the repercussions of domestic violence and what happens when the home is no longer a haven. On view until April 12th, Home Sweet Home includes works by Betty Bee, Giulia Caira, Cecilia Lundqvist, Marko Mäetamm,Ronald Moran, Ultra Violet, and Krzysztof Wodiczko.

(Cecilia Lundqvist, still from C, digital video, 2001. Courtesy of the artist.)

Leaf Alter for Nunzia, sculpture and collage by feminist artist Nancy Azara, is currently up at the Maurice N. Flecker Gallery at Suffolk County Community College on Long Island. Check it out before the show closes March 12th!

(Nancy Azara, Leaf Alter for Nunzia, 2004. Courtesy of the Artist.)

Continuing to March 31 is John Kirchner: Unkowns at Conner Contemporary Art in Washington DC. Kirchner converses with unkown 19th century painters by resurrecting these anonymous work with critical and sometimes humorous interventions. Placing clothing and other common objects onto the paintings, the artist grants them a new life to works that would otherwise be discarded.

(John Kirchner, Caro Senorita, 2008, framed oil on canvas + linen handkerchief, 32 x 27 inches. Courtesy of Conner Contemporary Art.)

The opening reception for Jeremy Kost, After the Party, curated by Tim Goossens, is scheduled for Tuesday, March 3rd at 7pm at Dactyl Foundation in Manhattan. Kost works almost exclusively with his Polaroid camera, capturing portraits that bring up questions of beauty and identity. For RSVP info, click here.

(Jeremy Kost: Untitled from After the Party, 2009, original Polaroid. Courtesy of the Artist.)

UN-SCR-1325: An exhibition referencing the UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION 1325, curated by Jan Van Woensel and Vanessa Albury, and featuring the artwork of Vanessa Albury, Claire Beckett, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Jen DeNike, Kathleen Hanna & Becca Albee, Karin Hanssen, Kati Heck, Ann Veronica Janssens, Marie-Jo Lafontaine, Marlene McCarty, Sofie Muller, Adrian Piper, Adie Russell, Leah Singer, Joëlle Tuerlinckx, and Cindy Wright, opens March 6th at the Chelsea Art Museum. Bringing together the artwork of eight Belgian artists and eight American artists, this exhibition references the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security that was adopted in 2000 and focuses on the position of women in global and local sociopolitical contexts. This show will be up until April 11th.

(Sophie Muller, Nipple Closet, 2007. Courtesy of the artist.)