Love/War/Sex, presented at Exit Art through January 28th, considers the spectacles and seductions of war through the work of nine internationally recognized artists, including Ellen Lake, Rebecca Loyche, and Margot Herster, whose work incorporates photographs and tokens lent by the families of Guantánamo detainees. The exhibition includes video, sculpture, and photography, but also features a selection of military artillery borrowed from the Military Museum of Southern New England, and wallpapered stories of war conjured from texts.

(Moving Theater, Impermanent Collection, 2007 Photo: Brock Labrenz/An Films.)

The Whitney Live performance series presents Moving Theater: Impermanent Collection. Performed against the backdrop of the Whitney’s Lower Gallery, dancers interact with videos of themselves dancing, and respond choreographically to the artwork in the Museum, while the ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble) provides a live score. December 14th at 7PM, Whitney Museum of American Art.

(Francesca Woodman, Untitled, Providence Rhode Island, 1975-78, Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery, New York.)

Marian Goodman Gallery is featuring an exhibition of photographs by acclaimed feminist photographer Francesca Woodman, whose haunting black-and-white images of herself, often staged in crumbling, abandoned houses, foreshadowed the tragedy of her young life, which was cut short by suicide in 1981.

(Bridget Riley, Painting with Vericals 2, 2006. Courtesy of PaceWildenstein, New York.)

Prolific British artist Bridget Riley, who began her career in the 1950s creating abstract paintings, is experiencing something of a comeback, mainly due to an exhibition of her large-scale drawings and newest works on view at both of PaceWildenstein’s Chelsea and Midtown branches through January 5th.

(Liz Craft, Beach Girl Rose, 2007. Courtesy of the Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York.)

L.A. based artist Liz Craft continues to exhibit her second solo show in New York at the Marianne Boesky Gallery through December 22nd. Craft’s installations evoke a curious tangle of architectural whimsy, including tableaux of caves of stalactites, interiors of kitschy bric-a-brac, and a befuddled beachcomber.

Opening…

On Friday, December 14th an exhibition of video art by Ann Carlson and Mary Ellen Strom opens at Alexander Gray Associates–which very recently CLOSED a fabulous exhibition of drawings and installations by Karen Finley. For their new video art, Carlson and Strom worked closely with four New York City attorneys, choreographing and performing a dance and vocal score about the judicial system and their lives as lawyers.

(Ann Carlson and Mary Ellen Strom, Sloss, Rosenberg & Moore, 2007. Courtesy of Alexander Gray Associates.)

With so much phenomenal attention on feminist art these days, its important to acknowledge that many of the women who rose to fame in the 1960s and 1970s continue to produce stellar work today. An artist that exemplifies this concept is Mary Beth Edelson, a prominent figure in the 1970s feminist art movement, and a pioneer in the reclamation of Goddess imagery alongside Ana Mendieta, Hannah Wilke, and others. Edelson is best known for photographing her body in re-arrangements of mythic or ritualistic poses, photographs which she drew on or collaged in a gesture of playful defiance. By contrast, some of her recent works appropriate images of women and femme fatales from Old Hollywood movies and film noir, and re-present them on objects in the home, such as doors, curtains, bedspreads, and pillows. While these works are a departure from her earlier Goddess photographs and performances, they preserve Edelson’s playful, pop culture inflected feminist sensibility, and remind us that a woman’s work is never done.

(Mary Beth Edelson, Double Agent, 2000. Courtesy of the Artist).

See Mary Beth Edelson discuss more of her recent and early works at the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday. For more information please click here.

Other cool shows to see this week (as researched and recommended by our amazing intern Lauren Palmor) include:

The Great Cover-Up: American Rugs on Beds, Tables, and Floors at the American Folk Art Museum, on view through September 9th. This show contains work by dozens of women artists, many who were previously unidentified or named as “anonymous.” A fascinating and colorful look into the world of American women’s crafts from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Roberta Smith’s review in the N.Y. Times highlights the show’s feminist spin.

Amelia Earhart: Image and Icon on view through September 9th. This exhibition at the ICP makes a connection between Earhart as a historic icon and images of her public persona. Before you see the show, you can brush up on her story with a visit to her page our Dinner Party Database.

Circa 1970, a show of works by Lynda Benglis and Louise Bourgeois opens on June 21st at Cheim and Read gallery. The exhibition focuses on works produced by the two artists from the 1960s and 70s. You can also learn about Lynda Benglis on our Feminist Art Base before you visit the show! (Image: Cheim and Read)

Also…

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum is celebrating its tenth anniversary! 2007 has been declared “The Year of O’Keeffe” by the Santa Fe city council, as well as the New Mexico state legislature. Join in the celebration by attending some of the amazing upcoming events at the O’Keeffe Museum. Learn more about O’Keeffe in our Dinner Party Database. (Image: Alfred Stieglitz. Georgia O’Keeffe, 1919. Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. LC-USZC4-6228)