Last September, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston opened an all women's exhibition titled "Women Take the Floor", to highlight how few women are in museum collections (including their own). In order to rectify these disheartening statistics, the exhibition has physical mass (hundreds of objects) and presence (on view until May 2021). I love the quote wall they use before you walk into the space, where heroes such as Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar and Ruth Asawa are quoted. Included in the wall text is the question: "Can you name 5 women artists?" This question, first posed by The National Museum of Women in the Arts based in Washington, DC, became a social media sensation when people utilized the hashtag #5womenartists last March during Women's History Month. It is a question that continues to stick with me.
To celebrate Women's History Month, this newsletter highlights female owned and operated galleries and female artists working across all media. I've found ceramics has become a particularly exciting area to collect in, with artists pushing the boundaries between craft, fine art and design.
- Hadley
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Left to right: Ghada Amer, Femme Sur Fond Cobalt, glazed ceramic, 2017; Lauren Herzak-Bauman, Stack, porcelain; Francesca DiMattio, Milton Vase, Chinapaint and Underglaze on porcelain ceramic, 2011; Cheryl Ann Thomas, Two Fold, porcelain, 2015; Aneta Regel, Lonia, glazed stoneware, porcelain and mixed media, 2018; Katsuyo Aoki, Predictive Dream, porcelain, 2018; Arlene Shechet, Mold of the Mold #29694 Pushed, porcelain, 2013; Yeesookyung, Translated Vase, ceramic shards, epoxy, 24-karat gold leaf, 2013.
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Clay and ceramics have in recent years been elevated from craft to high art material, with the resulting body of work being made by contemporary visual artists. Ceramic works are being exhibited and actively collected, as more artists turn to the medium as part of their artistic practice. In particular, I'm drawn to the tactile nature of a material once malleable and now firm. Artists, educated in classical practices, pull from a diverse array of cultures and styles to inform their visual language.
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Julia Powell's painting, Rainlight, is the centerpiece for this contemporary family room. Never interested in a realistic depiction of the landscape, Powell aims to create a visceral reaction, painting a mood, feeling and sense of place. Through combining impressionist and expressionist traditions, she creates a vast sky filled with thickly rendered cumulus clouds.
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Abigail Ogilvy Gallery exhibits contemporary art with an emphasis on concept-driven artwork by emerging to mid-career artists. Since opening in 2015, the gallery has hosted over 40 exhibitions in its Boston space located in the SOWA arts district in the South End.
If you are in NYC for the art fairs this week, be sure to check them out at SPRING/BREAK Art Show where they will be exhibiting Marisa Adesman and Katelyn Ledford and Volta NY with Lavaughan Jenkins.
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Andrea Chung, Vex I, collage, ink and beads on paper handmade from traditional birthing cloth, 22 x 16 1/2 in., 2020
Andrea Chung’s practice often utilizes perishable and precious materials with strong underlying histories, forming relationships to pre-emancipation images of the Caribbean, touristic misrepresentations of people and place, the export or import of goods and materials, and the labor of the human body. Chung examines cultures created under the influence of colonial and post-colonial regimes, asking viewers to examine their own relationships to labor and history. Her work will be on view in Klowden Mann's booth at the Armory Show.
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Pairing found objects and unexpected bases, Nicole Cherubini leads viewers to reconsider their conception of modern sculpture. From an early interest in Mexican and Turkish ceramics, to a later series of pots composed of furs and chains, her choice of materials often blurs the boundaries separating craft and decor. Cherubini simultaneously references the history of her material and disrupts form and function of fetishized objects in society.
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I hope to see you this week in New York:
- The Armory Show, March 5-8, 2020, Piers 90 and 94
- VOLTA New York, March 4-8, 2020, Metropolitan West
- SPRING/BREAK Art Show, March 3-9, 2020, Madison Avenue between 58th and 59th Street
- SCOPE Art Show, March 5-8, 2020, Metropolitan Pavilion
Exhibitions:
- Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures, MoMA, New York, through May 9, 2020
- Cauleen Smith: Mutualities, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, through May 17, 2020
- Jordan Casteel: Within Reach, New Museum, New York, through May 24, 2020
- Wangechi Mutu, The NewOnes, will free us, The Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art, New York, through June 8, 2020
- Skirts, Arelene Schechet, Pace, New York, through April 25, 2020
- Paper Routes -- Women to Watch 2020, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, June 26-September 7, 2020.
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Follow me on Instagram
@powellfineartadvisory
to stay up to date on my latest projects, artist studio visits, inspirations and more.
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