Female-Powered Exhibitions in 2021
March 17, 2021
As March is Women’s History Month, we’re celebrating the female artists taking U.S. museums by storm this year. See our curated exhibition list below:
Untitled (Forever), 2017 © Barbara Kruger. Photo by Timo Ohler and courtesy of Sprüth Magers
Art Institute of Chicago
September 19, 2021 – January 24, 2022
Stretching beyond the Art Institute’s walls, Barbara Kruger’s retrospective will take to the streets of Chicago this fall. Kruger’s provocative text- and image-based art work have long challenged the status-quo of representation, power, and consumerism. Spanning the entirety of Kruger’s four-decade-long career, THINKING OF YOU. I MEAN ME. I MEAN YOU. is the largest exhibition of the artist’s work in twenty years!
Firelei Báez, ICA Watershed installation rendering, 2019. Courtesy of the artist and James Cohan, New York. Rendering by Nate Garner.
Institute of Contemporary Art Boston
This summer at the ICA Watershed, step into the reimagined ruins of Haiti’s Sans-Souci Palace, the former residence of Haitian revolutionary leader and monarch, Henri Christophe I. In her largest installation to-date, Firelei Báez will transform the working shipyard into a wondrous undersea version of the archaeological site.
ALSO ON:
Alice Neel Geoffrey Hendricks and Brian, 1978 (from the SFMOMA collection).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
A staunch advocate of social justice, the late portraitist, Alice Neel, dedicated her life and work to depicting those around her with honesty and compassion. From activists and political leaders, to neighbors and family members, Neel’s paintings are a testament to her belief that People Come First.
Christina Quarles, Peer Amid (Peered Amidst), 2019. Acrylic on canvas. 55 × 86 × 2 in. © Christina Quarles, Courtesy of the artist, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Pilar Corrias Gallery, London
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Quarles’ emotive, gestural paintings confront issues concerning racial and sexual identities, gender, and queerness. An exceptional artist that we have been following since her immersive “Made in LA” exhibition in 2018.
ALSO ON:
Wangechi Mutu, Water Woman (2017) Courtesy the Artist and Gladstone Gallery. Image provided courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Legion of Honor
Wangechi Mutu’s expansive site-specific exhibition I Am Speaking, Are You Listening? will respond to the Legion’s history as a site originally built for the presentation of European art from Antiquity to Impressionism. Engaging in the critique of gender and racial politics through a fantastical reimagining of famous Western artworks and their histories, the presentation will feature new sculpture, collage, and videoworks by the Kenyan American artist.
ALSO ON:
Lisa Yuskavage, No Man’s Land, 2012. Courtesy of the Artist and David Zwirner.
Baltimore Museum of Art
Take a walk on the wild side with Lisa Yuskavage’s Wilderness exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Existing at the intersection of the familiar and the fantastical, Yuskavage is celebrated for her intimate otherworldly paintings of nymph-like figures in romanticized landscapes.
Sophie Taeuber-Arp with Dada-Head, Zurich, 1920 © Stiftung Arp e.V., Berlin/Rolandswerth. Photo: Nic Aluf; Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Quatre espaces à cercles rouges roulants, 1932 © Stiftung Arp e.V., Berlin/Rolandswerth
Museum of Modern Art New York
November 21, 2021 – March 22, 2022
This exhibition traces Sophie Tauber-Arp’s (1889–1943) career trajectory: from applied arts teacher, participant in the Dada movement, and maker of textiles and objects; to designer of murals, stained glass windows, furniture, interiors, and buildings; to painter-sculptor, magazine editor, and early champion of geometric abstraction.
ALSO ON OUR RADAR:
Seattle Art Museum:
Whitney Museum of American Art:
The Hirshhorn
The Jewish Museum
The Momentary:
*Please consult museum websites on how to schedule your visit!