Her: Women Artists Modern and Contemporary

OPENING NIGHT

November 7 | 5 – 9 pm

Angela Fraleigh Artist Talk at 6:30 PM

Attire: Freestyle

Lilienthal Gallery invites you to the opening of Her: Women Artists Modern and Contemporary on Friday, November 7. This exhibition explores the multifaceted nature of womanhood and includes foundational and pioneering women artists, both historically significant and locally emergent.

The act of bringing an artwork into the world is like that of creating life, giving birth, regardless of the sex of the artist. Despite this universal need to create, express, and discover, throughout history, gendered social constructs have made this natural inclination into hierarchies.

It is important that women’s experiences are focused on, uplifted, and their voices heard. Her: Women Artists Modern and Contemporary focuses on artists whose work specifically explores the multifaceted aspects of womanhood. It features a selection of artists from the foundational and pioneering, to the next generation of emerging voices.

Artists Judy Chicago, Jenny Saville, Swoon, Angela Fraleigh, Lakesha Lee, Li Daiyun, Denise Stewart-Sanabria, and Ilana Lilienthal create art with their own experiences in mind. This exhibition ranges from proto-feminist art of the sexual empowerment movement to the divine feminine and the importance of matrilinear connections. These women artists depict themselves as both the muses and the makers, reflecting their experiences of womanhood in its multifaceted expressions.

Judy Chicago noted that “feminist art is the act of a woman giving birth to herself.”

SWOON

ILANA LILIENTHAL

Though women artists shouldn’t be defined only in the context of their gender, overcoming these gender-based struggles is an integral aspect of many women artists’ work. As philosopher Marilyn Frye stated, “no human is free of social structures.” But the theme of a woman’s life experiences with these social structures is almost impossible separate from their art when one is constantly facing treatment based on the assumptions of what a woman is and should be. To untangle ‘womanhood’ from these artists’ work severs the full meaning of their practice.

Historically, women have always been at the heart of artistic and social movements, though they may have been overshadowed by their male counterparts. The history and impact of these artists is vast, and still not entirely known due to the lack of prioritization in documenting their work.

Female artists of color and those outside the Western world are especially unknown compared to the male artists whose prestige looms over their careers. Highly celebrated artists of today like Hilma af Klint, Leonora Carrington, and Frida Kahlo were essentially unknown until either late in their life or after passing.

Throughout museums internationally, one will find walls and walls of naked women, reclined delicately for the viewer’s observation or vast iterations of placid Madonnas, though they are likely not painted by women themselves. Studies note that between 2008 and 2020, American museum acquisitions include just 11% of women in their total intake. This number for Black women artists is 0.5%. Accroding to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, these numbers peaked in the past, promising years being 2005 and 2015, since then the collections of women artists has steadily decreased.

As thus presented, women are represented in institutional spaces more often as the muse rather than the creators. But the muses of well-known artists were often creatives themselves who took ownership of their imagery through their work.

The beauty of art is in its universal human connection. Even deeply personal artwork can touch a stranger’s soul by expressing intrinsic truths that in some way can be understood by all.

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Grounded in the hybrid print and prose works of Judy Chicago, her descriptions of life as a woman artist in the 1970s provide a touchstone for the adversity which much of these artists’ work rebels against. Known best for her controversial works featuring female anatomy, she created imagery depicting women’s sexuality as a statement on their bodily autonomy. Chicago’s early feminist art demanded respect and prestige for women artists. Not only aiming for creating polemic works, she also uplifted textiles into her art, elevating it from a status of ‘women’s work’ or craft to a fine art context.

Jenny Saville breaks the box of idealized bodies, the mold in which women are pressed into. Her canvases are large and ponderous, unconventionally portraying female figures filling the space with folds of fat, the scars of motherhood, and marks of imperfect human existence.

Pioneering street artist, Swoon, considered one of the first women to foray into this field, focuses largely on themes of divine femininity and the power of motherhood. Goddesses feature heavily in her luscious work, either pasted onto an unassuming wall or fully rendered in immersive environments.

LaKesha Lee’s work celebrates African American representation and family legacy, especially that of her maternal connections, offering visual narratives that honor the past while inspiring a shared future. Her visuals bear the patina of history, not hiding the ravages of time upon a family. Inspired by a quilt, the last gift from her grandmother before her passing, Lee’s material is a living legacy.

Denise Stewart-Sanabria reflects on human behavior and history. Though she doesn’t think of herself as a ‘woman artist’, she hints at themes of womanhood and strength through her symbols and color palette choices. Traditionally-styled still lifes are often dark and muted, but Stewart-Sanabria brings her subjects to life in vibrant shades of technicolor. She elevates the color pink from something regarded as trivial to a rich and essential hue for her paintings.

Li Daiyun reflects on concepts of womanhood during periods of immense upheaval and rapid transformation. Ilana Lilienthal portrays women and feminine energy, as agents of change who project their inner light outward, are prominent in her pieces. She incorporates the goddess, or female figure, drawing on the tradition of her strong presence throughout art history.

Angela Fraleigh conjures the power of mythological women, figures which buck against the systems that demand their silence rather than resilience. She works with museums to research their collections and retells the stories therein through the women’s perspectives. Through these adapted historical paintings with a contemporary lens, she corrects the misconception that women haven’t contributed to the culture, and points out that this was due to lack of access. When asked why she creates these reinterpreted paintings, she answered, “because I needed these paintings. The work I make is for women.”