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In last Sunday’s panel discussion, “The American Hero and the American Dream: Reflections on Our Contemporary Political Narratives,” moderator and well-known author Courtney E. Martin was joined by panelists Charlton McIlwain, Assistant Professor of Culture and Communication at New York University; Gloria Feldt, author and blogger at Heartfeldt Politics; and Ramin Hedayati, associate producer of The Daily Show for an in-depth examination of the narratives and images that dominate the media, campaigns, and candidates during this election season. If you missed this important discussion, check out the program in the following video!

Never Has She Ever: Renée Cox just opened last week at the Mabel Smith Douglass Library Galleries at Rutgers. This unflappable feminist artist sparked controversy in 2001, when her photograph, Yo Mama’s Last Supper was shown here at the Brooklyn Museum. Today, Cox continues to use self-portraiture in her artwork to reclaim the African-American body, and invert stereotypes of women. This show runs until December 8th.

(Renée Cox, Lolivya (BW), from the series, Queen Nanny of the Maroons, 2004. 
Digital ink-jet print on watercolor paper, 53 x 43″. Courtesy of the artist.)

A retrospective of the work of Audrey Flack is in it’s last weeks at LewAllen Contemporary. Audrey Flack: Abstract Expressionist to Photo-Realist includes works by the artist from 1949 to 1977. This lone female pioneer of the photo-realist movement has spent recent years creating monumental statues of female goddesses with the hope of offsetting the overabundance of male monumental statuary. Audrey Flack: Abstract Expressionist to Photo-Realist closes October 12th.

(Audrey Flack , Matzo Meal, 1962. Oil On Canvas, 14.5 in x 18.5 in. Courtesy of LewAllen Contemporary.)

NOISE: New Works by Marilyn Henrion opened yesterday at Noho Gallery. This artist’s dedication to textile art is exemplified in her quilted artworks of the past. Henrion continues her commitment with this exhibition, taking up rug hooking as her new media. This show runs until October 25th.

(Marilyn Henrion, Cornerstone, 2008. Courtesy of the Artist.)

Overflow opens at Laconia Gallery in Boston on October 3rd. This exibition features artists Sara Hairston-Medice, Mary O’Malley, and Resa Blateman. These three women embrace nature and the decorative in their artwork, at times using reproductive imagery and embracing stereotypically feminine mediums in their work. If you’re in the area, mosey on over before this one closes on November 22.

(Mary O’Malley, Untitled, 2008, ink on paper, (detail). Courtesy of Laconia Gallery.)

Catherine Opie: American Photographer just opened at the Guggenheim. This exhibition features artwork by this feminist artist from the 1990’s through today. Opie’s photography deals with queer politics and the American landscape, and her work was show as part of Global Feminisms here at the Center. Catherine Opie: American Photographer will be on view until January 7th.

(Catherine Opie, Justin Bond, 1993. Chromogenic print, edition of 8, 20 x 16 inches. Courtesy of the Guggenheim.)

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.)

Opening this past weekend and running through the 27th of September, Everywhere is War (and rumours of war) is a group show including artist Sara Rahbar, who spoke here at the museum earlier this summer with the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective. This exhibition will be held at Bodhi Art in Kalaghoda, Mumbai, and should be a great opportunity to see this amazing photographer and textile artist’s work.

(Sara Rahbar, Flag#30, 64×34, 2008. Courtesy of the artist.)

Patty Chang, a daring video artist who resides here in Brooklyn, is showing her most recent work at the Arrow Factory in Beijing. Chang’s body of work spans the last decade. Both Eels, 2001, a performance video in which Chang traps an eel inside her blouse, and In Love, 2001, in which Chang passes onions from her mouth into the mouths of her parents, remain vivid in this blogger’s mind (and, Losing Ground, 2000 is favorite of Sarah’s!) Touch Would will be available for viewing by the public at the Arrow Factory until the 29th of September.

(Touch Would exhibition announcement. Courtesy of The Arrow Factory.)

Allyson Mitchell is participating in a show at the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto. The exhibition, Close to You, which runs through October 12th, takes a closer look at contemporary social and sexual customs via pop culture and through the mediums of knitting, crochet, embroidery and appliqué.

(Allyson Mitchell. Big Trubs, 2004. Courtesy of the artist.)

Printmaker and installation artist, swoon, has taken her work to the Hudson River this month with her most recent project Swimming Cities of the Switchback Sea. This performance/conceptual/just-plain-rad project consists of an armada of eco-friendly ships made from recycled materials which will make their way down the Hudson from Troy, NY, where they launched earlier this month. The fleet will be docking at Beacon, Croton-on-Hudson, and Nyack next week for music and performances before they reach their final destination at Deitch Projects in Long Island City, Queens on September 7th for the opening of swoon’s latest installation.

(Portion of Swimming Cities of the Switchback Sea exhibition poster. Courtesy Deitch Projects.)

Sabina Baumann’s death of cool opens at Galerie Mark Muller in Zurich next Thursday, the 28th of August. This show runs until September 27th, so stop on over if you happen to be in the area!

(Sabina Baumann, aus der lumpenserie, 2007. Pencil on paper, 60 x 40 cm. Courtesy of Galerie Mark Muller.)

The Percipient Eye, opened last Friday, August 22nd at The Gallery at Mansion in Manhattan, and features photography by Jennifer Maeve. This exhibition was curated by a former graduate intern here at the Center, Saisha Grayson. Good luck with the show and congrats Saisha!

(The Percipient Eye exhibition announcement. Courtesy of Saisha Grayson.)

July was a hot month for programming in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art! First off, Ladan Akbarnia, Hagop Kevorkian Associate Curator of Islamic Art here at the Brooklyn Museum, with the assistance of sign language interpreter Jina Porter, gave a gallery talk on our current exhibition, Ghada Amer: Love Has No End as part of the Target First Saturday events.

(Ladan Akbarnia and Jina Porter explaining Ghada Amer’s photo series of her various public works installations for the crowd. Photo courtesy of Jessie Shaffer.)

Akbarnia was very insightful in her take on Amer’s work, at one point questioning the attitude of Muslim women towards their veils and other traditional head and body coverings.

(Dr. Natasha Gordon-Chipembere describing her extensive work with circumcised women. Photo courtesy of Jessie Shaffer.)

Concurrent with the gallery talk was a screening of the film Moolaadé, directed by Ousmane Sembène, which addresses female circumcision. Afterwards, Dr. Natasha Gordon-Chipembere graciously led a heated discussion of the film and female circumcision in general. Moving from semantics to female circumcision in Brooklyn and the West’s misconceptions of the practice, and emotions understandably ran high as audience members volleyed back and forth on this controversial issue.

On Saturday, July 12th, Curator Maura Reilly gave a public tour of the exhibition Ghada Amer: Love Has No End, which is on view in the Center’s main galleries through October 19th.

(Maura Reilly presenting her take on Ghada Amer’s work. Photo courtesy of Jessica Hester.)

Reilly discussed the artist’s appropriation of the aesthetics of male Abstract Expressionists such as Barnett Newman and Jackson Pollock, and also suggested that Amer’s use of stitching – a traditionally-female endeavor – in some of her work is part of a reclamation of female sexuality and artistic autonomy. Like Akbarnia’s talk earlier in the month, Reilly touched on Amer’s investment in portraying both the social and political disenfranchisement and personal empowerment of Muslim women.

(Photo courtesy of Jessica Hester.)

Also on July 12th, the Center hosted filmmaker Katrina Browne for a showing of her documentary Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North. Presented in partnership with PBS’s P.O.V., a showcase for independent nonfiction film, the documentary chronicles Browne’s discovery that her New England ancestors were the largest slave-trading family in American history.

Don’t forget to stop by this Saturday at noon for the reading of excerpts from Live Through This—The Art of Self-Destruction, edited and read by Brooklyn-based feminist performer Sabrina Chapadjiev. Chapadjiev will lead a discussion following the reading with artist Fly and poet Nicole Blackman completing the panel. Thanks to everyone who came last month for your continuous support of the Center’s public programs!!

Tracey Moffatt’s exhibition, First Jobs Series 2008 opens Thursday, August 21st at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney and will be up until September 3rd. If you’re in the neighborhood, you really shouldn’t miss this amazing photographer/video artist’s work!

(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.)

Mother’s!!!, a solo exhibition by Lin Tianmiao just opened at Long March Project’s Gallery Space C in China. Tianmiao was also featured in our Global Feminisms show last year. As the exhibition title suggests, the theme of the show revolves around a mother’s role and all of the emotions-both positive and negative- that come with it. This exhibition runs until August 24th.

(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.)