#SHEROES

About

#SHEROES

08.06. – 03.08.2019

Opening:

Friday, 07 of June 2019 from 6pm to 9pm

#SHEROES presents works on paper from 1961 to 1981 by eight groundbreaking female artists.

Jo Baer,Teresa Burga, Judy Chicago, Beatriz González, Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven,

Anna Oppermann, Barbara Rossi, Regina Vater

The Oxford dictionary defines the word shero as: A woman admired or idealized for her courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities; a heroine.

‘what an amazing experience to be able to meet your shero’

‘she is undoubtedly one of my generation's most iconic and influential sheroes’

Surprisingly, the word first appeared in the mid 19th century and must be linked to the Suffragette movement.

It was only fifty years ago that , lifted by the feminist activism of the 1960s and 1970s, women became permanently and centrally involved in art theory and practice.

It was in that context, that American art historian Linda Nochlin first applied the renewed feminist perspective to art history, with her now legendary article „Why Have There Been No Great Woman Artists?“, published in Artnews in 1971. This article initiated an ongoing recovering of female artist, which were undervalued and ignored.

In 1981, Griselda Pollock and Rozsika Parker published Old Mistresses: Woman, Art and Ideology“ which shifted the discussion away from looking at the exclusion of female artists towards a dismantling of what they still perceived as a dominantly male canon.  In 1994 they asked the poignant question: „Can art history survive feminism?“

Now, almost half a century into the debate, we still find ourselves counting statistics of percentages of female participations in the art market in art institutions and exhibitions.

To me, at this point, it seems relevant to look at the strategies at the artistic languages that were invented by female artists in the paradigm-shifting decades oft he 1960s and 1970s in order to see how these languages resonate today. Undoubtedly what connects them all, is their courage and outstanding achievements, they ARE sheroes.

I chose to add the # to the title, not only to make a tongue in cheek reference to the fashionableness of the subject, (it is all over Instagram), but also to refer to the connectedness and international cross references that one can find between the various artistic positions. The choice of American, Latin American and European artist reflects the galleries current radius of activities. Another non Western and Afro-American selection might follow.

in collaboration with

Corbett vs. Dempsey

Galeria Casas Riegner

Galeria Jaqueline Martins

Jessica Silverman Gallery