The Victoria Myhren Gallery at DU is currently exhibiting an exemplary collection of paintings, prints and sculptures by women artists from the Linda Lee Alter Collection of Art by Women. This gallery was organized by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and arranged by Dan Jacobs, director of the Myhren Gallery. The gallery is open until May 4 from 12-4 p.m. in the Shwayder Art Building and admission is free. The collection features renowned female artists Hung Liu, Kiki Smith, Judy Chicago and Faith Ringgold as well as lesser known artists such as Anne Harris and Elizabeth Catlett.
In a male-dominated art world, an all-female art exhibition is uncommon. According to the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., 51 percent of visual artists today are women, but only 28 percent of museum solo exhibitions spotlighted women in eight selected museums throughout the 2000s.
DU senior Zamir Hall, soon to receive his BA in art history attended the show.
“People who are already aware of the disparity between male and female representation are the ones who went and will go. There needs to be greater marketing among the non-School of Art and Art History community,” said Hall.
Upon entering the gallery, a huge vibrant portrait looms in the center of the room. This piece, entitled “Visage II,” by Chinese-born Hung Liu, is breathtaking in its unexpected rosy pink and orange tones, but what is most intriguing about the painting are the drips that distort the otherwise traditional portrait. Part of Liu’s artistic process is strategically washing her paintings with linseed oil, which dilutes the paint and creates this amazing signature appearance.
Kiki Smith, a feminist German-born artist, known most for her fascinating yet often disturbing sculptures utilizing themes of the human body, is also an avid printmaker. Towards the back of the gallery are three prints from her “How I Know I’m Here” series, arranged vertically and feature parts of the body as well as nature, seamlessly melding into one organic image. The prints are striking in color, Smith having used only dark indigo and white.
Iconic feminist artist Judy Chicago is most renowned for her ceramics and textiles project called “Dinner Party.” This piece was compiled by Judy Chicago and many volunteers, both men and women. It is compiled of individual ceramic plates at a triangular table setting that correspond to famous women. Chicago utilized vaginal imagery on the plates and embroidered table runners to make a personal statement about the woman in question. Among the women featured in this installation are Hatshepsut, Eleanor of Aquitaine and Sacajawea. “The Female Gaze” also houses a test plate from Chicago’s early experimentation with various ceramics.
Faith Ringgold is an African American activist from Harlem, N.Y. who produced works incorporating textiles, often using quilt imagery.
On the left wall in the entryway is one such work, entitled “We Came to America,” from the series “The American Collection.” The piece features an African-American Statue of Liberty holding a child to her breast. In the water are nude men and women and evidence of a shipwreck in the distance which may be alluding to the struggles African Americans experienced in America, whether through brutal slavery or discrimination.
From oil paintings washed with linseed oil to prints utilizing organic imagery to an installation celebrating women to quilt imagery inspired by traditional African-American textiles, “The Female Gaze” exhibition is a diverse collection of women’s art from all walks of life, celebrating the woman, whoever she may be.
