Urgent Museum Notice

Art Fix Friday: July 17, 2020

Blog Category:  Art Fix Friday
A black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned adult woman holding a newspaper with news about World War II. She wears a coat and her short, curly hair is caught in the wind.

The Women’s Way public art initiative in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is now underway. In five alleyways throughout the city, local artists will paint murals to commemorate the city’s historic women leaders. The project seeks to reclaim both local history and the safety of the alleys for women.

A woman with a yellow fanny pack paints a mural on a white wall in an alley. The mural is unfinished, but shows a group of women in uniforms standing together against a graphic red triangle. Two larger portraits of these women are painted on either side in blue triangles; one is holding a baseball bat. Two ladders stand against the wall.
Michi Farias paints a mural depicting the Grand Rapids Chicks 1945 All American Baseball Team in a Grand Rapids alley; Photo courtesy Downtown Grand Rapids, Inc.

Jasmine Bruce will paint Harriet Woods Hill; Esan Sommersell will paint Ethel Coe; Alan Compo will paint Angeline Kelsey “Naw Kay O Say” Yob; Michi Farias will paint the Grand Rapids Chicks 1945 All American Baseball Team.

Front-Page Femmes

Artnet reports on a new grant from the New York nonprofit Queer|Art in support of the work of Black trans women artists; Thelma Golden and Juliana Huxtable are among the judges.

Jezebel interviews writer Elizabeth Méndez Berry about protecting Black and Latinx women in hip-hop, who face high instances of domestic violence.

Marie Claire profiles artist Zoe Fitzpatrick, who is working with Bridging the Gap Foundation to create an education resource on Indigenous health traditions.

The New York Times features Sophie Taeuber-Arp, “a multidisciplinary artist when it was radical to be so.”

Santa Monica Daily Press covers the recent completion of #THEARTOFMAKINGNOISE, a live public mural collaboration for racial justice led by Alyse Stone and Dolly Singh.

The first episode of Crazy Smart Asia podcast features burlesque artist Sukki Singapora.

Colossal features Jessica Spence, whose paintings center the intricacies and significance of Black hair.

A young dark-skinned girl sits on the ground between the legs of a dark-skinned woman, who sits in a chair while braiding the girl’s hair. The girl drapes her arm over the woman’s knee and cradles the dark-skinned doll in her lap. Their body language suggests routine and comfort.
Jessica Spence, Sunday Evening, 2017; Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36 in.; Courtesy © Jessica Spence

BOMB magazine interviews artist and sociologist Frida Orupabo: “My collages should not evoke comfort.”

DJ and artist Shaquille Wasasala publishes an open letter about gender disparities in the music festival industry.

The Art Newspaper summarizes Tate’s 2021 exhibition lineup, which is dominated by women artists.

The National Gallery in London announces that their Artemisia Gentileschi retrospective will display, for the first time, the original transcript of the 1612 trial in which she accused Agostino Tassi of rape.

i-D features AMKMQ, a multimedia artist advocating for the “multiplicity within [her] experience as a Black woman.”

Hyperallergic reviews the life and oeuvre of artist, designer, and architect Eileen Gray.

The Atlantic interviews Gina Prince-Bythewood, director of the new women-led action film The Old Guard.

Nylon features Abir, a singer-songwriter seeking to shift common perceptions of Muslim women with her new single “Inferno.”

The Great Women Artists podcast asks Turner Prize winner Lubaina Himid about her work as an artist, curator, and participant in the Black Arts Movement of the 1980s.

Shows We Want to See—Online Edition

Earlier this year, the Pina Bausch Foundation collaborated with the École des Sables, founded by Germaine Acogny, to perform The Rite of Spring with an all-Black cast of dancers. The film of the final rehearsal before COVID-19 closures, performed on a beach in Senegal, is now available for online streaming.

A group of dark-skinned women wearing tan-colored slip dresses run gracefully on an empty beach at twilight. One woman in the center stands still, her shoulders hunched over a pink bolt of cloth in her hands. Behind them, dark-skinned men stand without shirts stand and watch. The colors are muted and dream-like.
Still from film of Dancing at Dusk—A Moment with Pina Bausch’s The Rite of Spring, performed in Senegal, 2020; Image courtesy polyphem Filmproduktion

Last Light, a film by Carmen Argote that records her solitary walks down empty Los Angeles streets during the COVID-19 pandemic, will be screened online ahead of its upcoming installation in LA art venues. The film premieres on Tuesday, July 21; Argote will join Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions for an online interview on Wednesday, July 22.

Related Posts