Elimination of Violence

Today is November 25th. The United Nations General Assembly has designated today International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

Marches around the world helped raise awareness of ongoing issues, where in many countries femicide is still classified as “honorable,” sex-trafficking is often protected under the guise of “marriage,” and executive misogyny is buried with hush money or excused as “locker room talk.”

Today beings the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, an international campaign to challenge violence against women and girls. The campaign runs every year from today to December 10th, Human Rights Day.

In many countries femicide is still classified as “honorable,” sex-trafficking is often protected under the guise of “marriage,” and executive misogyny is buried with hush money or excused as “locker room talk.”

“Sexual violence against women and girls is rooted in centuries of male domination. Let us not forget that the gender inequalities that fuel rape culture are essentially a question of power imbalances.” –UN Secretary-General António Guterres

Last year we celebrated the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Earlier this year we covered International Women’s Day featuring the women artists on ARTPIL and reflected on the #MeToo movement supporting the women who have broken the silence. We stand in solidarity with survivors, survivor advocates, and women’s human rights defenders.

Today we would like to once again feature the women who have inspired and created in the art world.

Analia Saban

Asking what the fundamental distinctions are between mediums, Analia Saban’s work dismantles the physical nature of materials and the basic premise of the medium to a near unconscious or particle level. Her current exhibition Particle Theory is on view through December 28, 2019 at Arario Gallery.

Rineke Dijkstra

Internationally recognized master portrait photographer Rineke Dijkstra was featured in I Am a Native Foreigner at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, The One and The Many / Rineke Dijkstra at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, and most recently Futures Past & Present at Huis Marseille.

Sophia Al-Maria / Tate, Photo Project Native Informant

SOPHIA AL-MARIA

Drawing on personal heritage and fictional future projections, Sophia Al-Maria’s protagonists reflect on the narratives and languages they have inherited as children of various colonial legacies. Her current exhibition Art Now / Sophia Al-Maria is on view at Tate Britain through February 23, 2020.

Cig Harvey

Spanning photography, video, mixed media and the written word, Cig Harvey’s creative practice explores physical and emotional boundaries of the senses with vividly colored images and seductive vocabulary. Her series Eating Flowers was recently on view at Ogunquit Museum of American Art.

Ornella Mazzola / Females

Ornella Mazzola

Ornella Mazzola presented a glimpse into Females, her ongoing series capturing the women in her family. “Photography was a way of approaching them, bridging the distance, in silence and on tiptoes.”

Vanessa Beecroft / Abstract Memories

Vanessa Beecroft

Vanessa Beecroft, is a highly celebrated artist known for her monumental performance. Her work has been featured in Extra Bodies at Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, Abstracted Memories at Pio Pico Gallery in Los Angeles, as well as Paris Photo 2017.

Helen Cammock

These works by Helen Cammock in What Can Be Done / Che si può fare interweave women’s stories of loss and resilience with 17th Century Baroque music by female composers, exploring lament in women’s lives across histories and geographies. On view at Collezione Maramotti through February 16, 2020.

Ekaterina Anchevskaya / Forgiving

Ekaterina Anchevskaya

Ekaterina Anchevskaya, among 2018’s 30 Under 30 Women Photographers presented Forgiving, an ongoing documentary about people who left the world to start a new life in a monastery. This place is a salvation for many who came to seek help in times of hopelessness.

Sally Mann

With many previously unpublished works, this exhibit A Thousand Crossings offers an overview of Sally Mann’s artistic achievement as well as a focused exploration on the continuing influence of the South on her work. Recently closed at Jeu de Paume, Paris, the exhibition is currently on view through February 22, 2020 at High Museum of Art, Atlanta

Anastasia Ax

Anastasia Ax’s work is inspired by the idea of construction and its deconstruction and the countervailing forces released due to and as well before, during and after the process. She recently participated in the group exhibition Fragmented Realities at Goteborgs Konsthall.

Vivian Maier

Vivian Maier, whose work is often overlooked among the great photographers, captured the spontaneity of street scenes with precision reminiscent of Henri Cartier-Bresson. Her exhibition The Color Work took place earlier this year at Howard Greenberg Gallery

Anna-Eva Bergman

Anna-Eva Bergman’s painting is inseparable from that experience of the world and from the enigma of its existence, both a wall erected in front of us and a horizon line that flees in the distance. Her exhibition From North to South, Rhythms was recently on view at Bombas Gens.

Emma Portner / Femme Debout, trailer

Emma Portner

Emma Portner’s complex and delicate choreography draws on the grotesque, the artificial, and extreme emotionality, her extraordinary performances leaving her audiences breathless. Her performance, Femme Debout, responding to the exhibition Francis Bacon & Alberto Giacometti, previously premiered at Fondation Beyeler.

Hannah Starkey

Using actors within carefully considered settings, Hannah Starkey’s photographs reconstruct scenes from everyday life with the concentrated stylization of film. Her works were recently featured in Aesthetica’s Future Now Symposium 2019 in York, UK.

Chantal Joffe

With a combination of insight and integrity, as well as psychological and emotional force, to the genre of figurative art, Chantal Joffe was recently represented in two international group exhibitions, Works on Paper at Galleri Bo Bjerggaard and Rehang which continues on display at Collezione Maramotti.

Dorothea Lange

One of the giants in photography, Dorothea Lange’s work has been compelling in the documentary field. Her works have been featured in The American Document: New Visions in Documentary Photography 1931-1976 at Huxley-Parlour Gallery and was also recently on view with some of her counterparts Bruce Davidson and Stephen Shore, among others in the exhibition Aperture Photographs at Aperture.

Senta Simond

Senta Simond, equally at home with both color and black & white, her portrait works often border on infectious fashion editorials. She has been nominated for Aperture / Paris Photo First Book, Wallpaper Graduate Directory and British Journal of Photography Ones to Watch 2018. She is the winner of Swiss Design Awards 2018 and she was recently featured among Foam Talents 2019.

Meyrem Bulucek

30 Under 30 Women Photographers

Our own 30 Under 30 Women Photographers just closing out its 10th edition with the 2019 group after exhibitions at Maison de la Photographie and Galerie Claude Samuel, this annual selection has helped emerging, mid-career, as well as some accomplished women photographers to gain further exposure and participate in the collective among peers. Open call for the 2020 group, deadline November 30, 2019. For more information, please visit the Submissions page.

Rachel Rose

RACHEL ROSE

In recent years Rachel Rose has quickly risen to prominence for her compelling video installations and films. A selective overview of her practice comprised of five works focusing on moving images, Rachel Rose, is currently on view through January 12, 2020 at Fridericianum.

Newsha Tavakolian

Newsha Tavakolian, along with three others from Magnum Photos, to mark 30 years of the Sakharov Prize, worked with remarkable individuals last year, all staunch defenders of human rights, to shine a light on their work in They Defend Our Freedoms. A commission for European Parliament, these stories are gathered in a new book and exhibition serialized on Magnum’s site.

“Not until the half of our population represented by women and girls can live free from fear, violence and everyday insecurity, can we truly say we live in a fair and equal world.” –UN Secretary-General António Guterres

Indeed, with our often better halves, and without whom we could not be, we renew our commitment to engage and celebrate the women who have inspired and created in the art world.