(Tracey Moffatt, First Jobs, Fruit Market, 1975, 2008. Archival pigments on rice paper with gel medium. Image from First Jobs Series 2008 exhibition announcement.)

Global Feminisms artist Shahzia Sikander’s first major solo exhibition in the U.K. is on view now at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. Intimate Ambivalence features this incredible artist’s recent paintings, a wall drawing installed in Ikon, and a series of graphite portraits done over the last couple of years titled Monks and Novices.

(Shahzia Sikander, Monks and Novices Series - Novice Chandon, 2006-08. Graphite on paper 14 x 11 inches. Courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co.)

in your face, a group exhibition that investigates portraiture and representation of the figure, will be on view at Tria Gallery from August 19 – 23. Curated by Nikki Cohen, the show features the work of emerging artists Ben Aqua and Mike Ruiz (the collaborative team OK!Fresh), Elizabeth Dyer, Mary Lydecker, and Megan Cedro. The opening reception for the exhibition will be on Tuesday, August 19, from 6-8pm. Stop by and check out innovative work by these exciting up-and-comers!

(Ok! Fresh, photograph from in your face. Courtesy of Nikki Cohen Enterprise.)

April Vollmer’s Doing What Comes Naturally opened this month at The Sirens’ Song Gallery in Greenport, NY, and runs until September 2nd. Continuing an age old medium, Vollmer uses woodcut to explore the stereotypically feminine medium of floral design.

(April Vollmer, Rococo Puff, 2007. Hanga Woodcut. Courtesy of the artist.)

Karen Finley’s Impulse to Suck: The Performance of the Apology and the Separation of Sex and State, happens tomorrow night, the 14th of August at Performance Space 122 in Manhattan. In addition to performing her latest piece, Karen Finley with discuss aspects of Eliot Spitzer’s televised apology that followed the discovery of his criminal activities. Make sure to check out Performance Space 122’s website for advance tickets to this one night only event!

(Artwork by Karen Finley. Courtesy of Performance Space 122.)

(Lin Tianmiao, Mothers!!! No. 5, 2008. Courtesy of Long March Project.)

Woman Made Gallery in Chicago is opening Her Mark 2009, an exhibition celebrating the publication of the gallery’s annual art and literary journal. The reception is this Friday, August 1st, and the show will be up until August 28th.

(Elizabeth Bruno, The Illusion of Control, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches. Courtesy of Woman Made Gallery.)

Will Happiness Find Me, at the Marvelli Gallery ends this Thursday, August 8th. This exhibition features artists Daphne Arthur, Mary Reid Kelley, Jason Ledet, and Juliana Romano and includes a video by Kelley about an aviator(played by the artist) and his lover, a ballerina named Camel Toe, who leaves him for her vibrator.

(Mary Reid Kelley, Camel Toe, 2008. Video, 1 minute 25 seconds, Edition of 8. Courtesy of the Marvelli Gallery.)

Sexy Time: A Group Effort closes today at the Morgan Lehman Gallery. From the work of Susan Anderson, which explores the world of the young girl’s beauty pageant, to Chrissy Conant’s Chrissy Skin Rug, this show approaches the issues of sex and gender from a variety of innovative angles. If you have time today or after work tonight, stop on by!

(Chrissy Conant, Chrissy Skin Rug, 84 x 60 in. Silicone rubber, human hair, glass eyes, wood. Courtesy of Morgan Lehman Gallery.)

If Loved Could Have Saved You, You Would Have Lived Forever closes next week at Bellwether gallery. This group show investigates loss and memory and includes the work of Tammy Rae Carland and Patricia Cronin.

(Tammy Rae Carland, My Inheritance, 60 x 40 inches, Digital C-print, 2008. Courtesy of Bellwether Gallery.)

One of my fellow interns here at the museum discovered some really neat hand-stenciled shirts featuring feminist women throughout history the other day. Here’s what Lindsay Keating-Moore, creator of KMStitchery has to say about her artistry, “My rebellious spirit saw injustice and it prompted me to address it and attack it in a healthy way. I think it’s important to recognize, acknowledge and admire women who have fought for women’s rights and who have broken through gender barriers. And clothing is a great way to spread the message of feminism.” The selection ranges from Frida Kahlo to Emma Goldman and almost every woman worthy of note in between. Keep it up Lindsay!

(Susan B. Anthony Hand Stenciled Shirt, by KMStitchery. Courtesy of the Artist.)

(Wei-Hui Hsu, Photographic print from the Camoflage Series, 2007, Installation with facial masks, fabric stiffener, performance, toy guns, spray paint, army uniform. Courtesy of the artist.)

SOHO20 Chelsea Gallery just opened its 14th Annual International Exhibition last week which includes a solo show in their second gallery with artist Jong Sun Lee. Lee explores gender and power relations in her work through the use of unusual materials like human hair. When we emailed SOHO20 Chelsea’s director, Jenn Dierdorf, this morning, she mentioned that Lee “is currently preparing for a trip to Guatemala, where she will finance and work to build bathrooms for a community in return for their collaborative effort on an art project.”

(Jong Sun Lee, Yes You Are II, included in the 14th Annual International Exhibition. Courtesy of SOGO20 Chelsea Gallery)

2b female:perceptions of femininity opened last week at the Pendleton Art Gallery in Newport, Kentucky. Artist Pattie Byron combines female symbols with gender stereotypes to create her sculptures. The show runs through August 18^th, so if you’re in the area, check it out!

(Pattie Byron, Habitual Femininity, painted metal, polished metal and yarn. Included in the 2b female: perceptions of femininity exhibition, 2008. Courtesy of the artist.)

Yayoi Kusama currently has a solo exhibition up at Ota Fine Arts in Tokyo. On view until August 22nd, this artist’s unique vision is not to be missed!

(Yayoi Kusama, Original Infinity Nets, 1999. Acrylic on canvas, 194 x 391 cm. Courtesy Ota Fine Arts.)

Using familiar objects in unfamiliar ways, artist Heidi Forssell includes everything from a toothy teddy bear to a deep fried ball gown to get her message across. Her MFA graduate exhibition, The Right Kind of Girl: Video, Sculpture and Drawings about Female Identity and Experience, just opened last Saturday at the Arts and Consiousness Gallery of JFKU Berkeley and runs until August 2nd.

(Heidi Forssell, Image from exhibition announcement for The Right Kind of Girl.)

The National Museum of Women in the Arts is currently showing Modern Love: Gifts to the Collection from Heather and Tony Podesta. This group show will be up until September 21st, so if you are in the D.C. area anytime soon, feel free to take a gander!

(Icelandic Love Corporation, Where Do We Go From Here?, 2001. Diasec lazerchrome print, 27 3/4 x 27 1/2 in. Courtesy of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.)

A notable section of Ghada Amer: Love Has No End contains three photographs from a larger series that Ghada Amer collaborated on with two fellow artists in 1991, titled I ♥ Paris, 1991. Then an art student living in Paris, Amer and close friend and artist Ladan S. Naderi walked around the city, dressed in veils and other conservative garments, staging group portraits in front of famous Parisienne tourist attractions such as the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and the iconic merry-go-round located at the Sacre Coeur. These photographs were taken shortly after a string of terrorist bombings by Islamic militants in Paris took place from 1990 to 1991. The series also extended into performances of Amer and Iranian-born Naderi attending art openings around Paris dressed in the Iranian chador and Egyptian naqqab, which called attention to the regional variations of Islamic attire and the meaning associated with choosing to wear the garments. Needless to say, the pair did not get much of a warm reception at many of these stuffy openings!

This is the first time any part of this series has been shown publicly, and recently got some attention, inviting comparisons to the likes of Emily Jacir and Shirin Neshat.

Related to this section of the exhibition, is Reign of Terror, 2005, an installation in the gallery that is not easily overlooked. Working with students at Wellesley College in 2005, this installation features the bold pink and green wallpaper and a plastic and paper place-settings that the artist covered with the phrase “Terrorism’ is not indexed in Arabic dictionaries.” The paper goods were displayed in the Davis Museum and Cultural Center, and also used by staff and students in the College’s cafeteria!

Stop by the galleries tomorrow, July 12th, to hear Maura Reilly, Curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, talk about these works and others from the exhibition Ghada Amer: Love Has No End. For more details on this, and other programs in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art this weekend, click here.

(Ghada Amer (American, born Egypt, 1963). The Reign of Terror, 2005. Wallpaper from installation at Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts)

(Standing in front of the wallpaper from the installation The Reign of Terror, 2005, Ghada Amer speaks about the work during June’s Target First Saturday events. Photo taken by Eleanor Whitney.)

That same evening the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective board members Mareena Dareida and Sadia Rehman, along with artists Sara Rahbar, Samira Abbassy, and poet Sarah Husain gave us a sampling of their work during a panel discussion moderated by artist Miriam Ghani.

(The SAWCC panelists pose with Katie Apsey, former Brooklyn Museum Education Intern. Photo courtesy of Katie Apsey.)

As if that weren’t enough, on the twenty-first, Dr. Kay Sloan shared her film Suffragettes in Silent Cinema in conjunction with the Votes for Women, the exhibition in the Herstory gallery that is up through November 30th. Included in the footage from the documentary were some hilarious portrayals of women activists as aggressive homewreckers or child-like in comparison to their more mature and virtuous husbands. Writer and television producer Coline Jenkins gave a resounding presentation on her great-great-grandmother, the pioneering suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and her own dedication to uphold the legacy of her famous relative’s activism, while working to ensure that women everywhere realize “the full potential” of the Amendment that early suffragists fought so hard for in their lifetimes.

(Coline Jenkins shares a family portrait that includes her great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Photo taken by Maura Reilly.)

Highlighted in the discussion following the film and Jenkins’ presentation was the implication that many of the same prejudices and discriminations present at the turn of the century are still alive in representations of women in the media today.

Stay tuned for more coverage of programs in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art throughout the summer!

(From left to right; Melissa Messina, curator of Votes for Women, Dr. Kay Sloan, and Coline Jenkins during the panel discussion. The quote on projection screen is article XIX of the U.S. Constitution, which states: “The right of citizens of the U.S. to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex.” Photo taken by Sarah Giovanniello.)

Working to further the dialogue between women and contemporary art, the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective is an organization that seeks to unite and provide resources for female artists of South Asian descent, bringing a crucial perspective to the forefront of the global feminist art world. This weekend, board members Mareena Dareida and Sadia Rehman, along with artists Sara Rahbar, Samira Abbassy, and poet Sarah Husain will participate in a panel discussion moderated by artist Miriam Ghani here at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art during the Brooklyn Museum’s Target First Saturday events. The panel will provide a taste of these artists work as well as spoken word in this precursor to the collective’s 11th annual visual arts show, Rods and Cones: Seeing From the Back of One’s Head, at the Abrons Art Center, Henry Street Settlement this August.  Featuring artwork by Samira Abbassy, Samanta Batra Mehta, Anna Bhushan, Ruby Chishti, Smruthi Gargi Eswar, Mona Kamal, Baseera Khan, Pallavi Sharma, Sheena Sood, this exhibition should definitely be worth checking out!

(Shamira Abbassy, Calligraphic self-portrait, 2006. Courtesy of England Gallery)

“Following years of legislative and social struggle, women received the right to vote under US Federal law in 1920. But the country’s first legislative success with regard to women’s suffrage came in 1869 in the then newly created Wyoming Territory.

Though not a member of the Territorial legislature, Esther Hobart Morris has been given major credit for supporting that bill and other laws that allowed married women to control their own property, and provided equal pay for women teachers.

Mrs. Morris was appointed a justice of the peace in 1870 and was the country’s first woman to serve in a judicial office. Afterward, she continued to be active in political affairs and during Wyoming’s statehood celebration in 1890 she was honored for her suffrage activities. In 1895, at age 80, she was elected a delegate to the national suffrage convention in Cleveland.

A life size statue of Mrs. Morris stands directly in front of the Wyoming state capitol in Cheyenne and a copy of the statue was donated to the national statuary hall in the US Capitol when she was designated Wyoming’s representative in that exhibit.”

– Marty Levenson.

(Statue of Esther Hobart Morris by Avard Fairbanks in front of Capitol Building, Cheyenne, WY. Photo: Einar Einarsson Kvaran.)

Overhead view.  Pia Lindman: Soapbox Event, Reinventing Forms of Free Speech.  Federal Hall National Memorial, 26 Wall Street, New York City.  April 5, 2008.  Photo: Pia Lindman.  Courtesy: Pia Lindman.

Lindman received her MFA from Finland’s Academy of Fine arts, and received a second masters degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Over the years, Lindman has experimented with social and public space, challenging social, political and economic issues facing human beings globally. She has explored her interest in human masses, space and architecture through projects such as Three Cities, Rivers, Monuments (2002/2006) and Fascia (2006).

In her Soapbox Event, Lindman uses historical public spaces as venues for her art. She grants each participant a soapbox to stand on and sets her handy dandy timer for one minute. Participants can share just about anything in the time allotted; poetry, stories, monologues, movement sequences or articles. But there’s a catch: participants may form coalitions, stacking their soapboxes to create a higher podium. One minute is added to each coalition’s speaking time for each extra soapbox stacked. Now, this is a woman who understands the meaning of teamwork!

Side view.  Pia Lindman: Soapbox Event, Reinventing Forms of Free Speech.  Federal Hall National Memorial, 26 Wall Street, New York City.  April 5, 2008.  Photo: Pia Lindman.  Courtesy: Pia Lindman.

Lindman’s Soapbox Event is about more than getting your chat on. Lindman’s work forces participants to be conscious of one another, to share space, to communicate and listen. Her work is much more than a blab-fest: it challenges those involved to become more aware of their bodies in space, how bodies and voices relate to other bodies, how bodies and voices have the potential to affect the world.

The Soapbox Event is an ongoing project, taking place in public locations throughout New York City. The last event, held at the Federal Hall National Memorial in the Financial District reeled in 41 participants, a great success. Past Soapbox Events have taken place at Cooper Union, Yale School of Art and several other acclaimed venues.  To learn more about Pia Lindman’s upcoming events and her fascinating, thought provoking body of work visit the Soapbox Event Blog or check out Pia Lindman’s bio. Learn how to get involved and exercise your right to free speech.

While living in Cairo in 1988, Ghada Amer had an artistic breakthrough when she stumbled across a fashion magazine titled, Venus. The artist tells me that this magazine was a “sort of Vogue for the veiled woman,” which featured images of Western models wearing veils and modestly fashionable outfits that were photo-montaged onto their figures. The back of the publication also featured sewing patterns for readers to create their own versions of the fashions seen in the photos. Amer’s immediate response was a series of spiral notebooks with miniaturized versions of these patterns, and soon after larger works emerged, including the title piece for this exhibition, “Love Has No End,” (1990), and “Untitled,” (1990), which features a tracing paper cutout of a miniskirt pattern mounted to a rectangle of plywood.

(Ghada Amer (American, b. Egypt, 1963) Venus n. 192: Numero special femmes voiles pour l’été 1988, modèle n. 3, taille 46 (Venus No. 2: Special Issue for Veiled Women, Summer 1988, Model No. 3, Size 46), 1988; Ghada Amer (American, b. Egypt, 1963) Venus n. 192: Numero special femmes voiles pour l’été 1988, modèle n. 3, taille 46 (Venus No. 2: Special Issue for Veiled Women, Summer 1988, Model No. 32, Size 46), 1988. Both spiral notebooks with collage elements: Bristol paper on Canson paper. Collection of the artist, courtesy of Gagosian Gallery)

This piece leads into an area of Amer’s work where she begins to explore connections between presumed “feminine” techniques or craft, and “masculine” or formalized constructions. The patterning of baby clothes, and dresses influences works such as “L’Ange (The Angel),” (1991), and “Untitled,” (1991), while the subject of “woman’s work” and the figure of the “bored housewife” infiltrates “La femme qui repasse (The Woman Who Irons),” (1996), as Amer begins to reframe the narratives of feminine domesticity. In the last piece from this section, “Test Piece for Conseils de beauté de mois d’août: Votre corps, vos cheveux, vos ongles et votre peau (Beauty Tips for the Month of August: Your Body, Your Hair, Your Nails, and Your Skin),” (1993), the models of feminine behavior and improbable ideals of beauty that are championed by magazines such as Elle and Vogue are rendered powerless in the folds of four handkerchiefs delicately embroidered with the French text about grooming and proper etiquette.

La femme qui repasse (The Woman Who Irons), 1996. Acrylic and embroidery on canvas. Collection of the artist, courtesy of Gagosian Gallery.

Check out these works and more in Ghada Amer: Love Has No End at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center gallery through October 19th.

On Wednesday everyone basically hit the ground running as we began the load in and installation for our latest exhibition Ghada Amer: Love Has No End. For months prior to the installation, the Museum’s associate exhibition designer, Lance Singletary, and Curator Maura Reilly worked alongside one another developing a layout and floor plan that really gives museumgoers a comprehensive experience of Ghada Amer’s oeuvre. It will be really interesting to see how the exhibition ultimately engages patrons in the space!

Visiting the gallery this week, I had to keep reminding myself that I was at the Museum and not some bohemian artist’s loft in Williamsburg–EVERYONE was lending a hand! Maura was rolling out butcher paper on the floor and escorting many rolls of wallpaper around the space, Lance and some of the art handlers were building a vitrine near one of the entrances, while Ghada busied herself with the configuration for groupings of the smaller works, and kept the staff upbeat with her warmth and good humor. Late in the afternoon yesterday, we received a surprise visit from Dr. Elizabeth Sackler, who stopped by the galleries for a sneak preview of the exhibition! Francesca Ford has documented some of these highlights and others over the past few days–check out her delightful slideshow posted above.

We hope that you will stop by the Museum tomorrow, February 16th, when Ghada Amer: Love Has No End officially opens to the public!

Slideshow created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR. Having trouble seeing the slideshow? Photos are also on Flickr.