Works by Pioneering Feminist Artists on View at SCMA

Feminist art is in the spotlight this fall at the Smith College Museum of Art (SCMA).

A new exhibition, “Women’s Work: Feminist Art from the Collection,” was created in response to student and faculty requests for more access to such works in the museum’s collection.

On view through January 3, 2016, the exhibition features artwork by women in the forefront of feminism’s Second Wave (1960s-80s)—an era of protest and activism by women in the arts and in American society.

“Women’s Work” includes works by prominent Second Wave artists Emma Amos, Judy Chicago, the Guerrilla Girls, Jenny Holzer, Ana Mendieta, Lorraine O’Grady, Howardena Pindell, Faith Ringgold, Miriam Schapiro and Martha Wilson—among others.

Wilson and members of the Guerrilla Girls will appear on campus in programming related to the exhibition.

Wilson, founder of the artist-run Franklin Furnace space in New York City, will speak on Wednesday, Sept. 30, at 7 p.m. in the Campus Center Carroll Room. Her talk will trace the trajectory of her career and her current work.

Two members of the Guerrilla Girls, a pioneering feminist art collective, will give a performance on Thursday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m. in Sweeney Concert Hall, Sage Hall. The program is presented in collaboration with the student organization, Feminists of Smith.

Both programs are free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are needed.

Most of the works on view in “Women’s Work” were purchased or acquired by SCMA in the past decade. Some recent acquisitions will be displayed for the first time, including works by Lorraine O’Grady, Howardena Pindell, Martha Wilson and Miriam Schapiro.

The exhibition is organized around five themes drawn from the complex history of feminism’s Second Wave: the marginalization of women artists and their exclusion from the artistic “canon”; the female body and its representation; the concept of women’s work; sexuality and gender; and race and ethnicity.

“Women’s Work” is funded, in part, by the Judith Plesser Targan, Class of 1953, Art Museum Fund and by the Carlyn Steiner ’67 and George Steiner Endowed Fund in Honor of Joan Smith Koch.