At this year’s Venice Biennale, both top honors were awarded to Black women for the first time. Simone Leigh and Sonia Boyce were also the first Black women to represent their nations—the U.S. and U.K., respectively—at the 127-year-old biennale. Boyce accepted the Golden Lion for best national participation for her installation dedicated to Black female musicians. Leigh was recognized for her 16-foot-tall bronze bust Brick House (2016).
On the heels of these wins, writer Bernardine Evaristo reflects on the artistic triumph of older Black women. She highlights photographer Ingrid Pollard, who recently made the shortlist for the Turner Prize; Everlyn Nicodemus, who will be the first Black woman to have a self-portrait on display in the National Portrait Gallery; and many others finding acclaim in their later years.
Front-Page Femmes:
Visual artists Ester Partegàs, Elle Pérez, and Ioana M. Uricaru are among the winners of the American Academy in Rome’s 2022–23 Rome Prize; Alice Visentin won the visual arts prize for an Italian fellow.
Artist Cynthia Albritton, who flipped the notion of woman as muse by making sculptures of male rockers’ genitals, has died at age 74.
The New York Times goes behind the scenes of the upcoming exhibition Women’s Work, which will juxtapose the works of contemporary women artists with domestic objects of past centuries.
On April 23, the late painter Naziha Salim featured in a Google Doodle that celebrated her as “one of the few female artists to command influence in the male-dominated Iraqi art scene of the 1940s and ’50s.”
Artnet reviews Marisol and Warhol Take New York, now open at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami.
The Museum of Modern Art and the Neue Galerie have jointly acquired a rare self-portrait by Käthe Kollwitz.
The New York Times profiles Taylor Johnson, the Guggenheim’s first poet in residence, who will develop programs for an upcoming Cecilia Vicuña exhibition, among other initiatives.
ARTnews interviews Japanese artist Mari Katayama, who uses her amputated legs to question the concept of a “correct body.”
The New York Times considers the role of the Spice Girls—and their “girl power” messaging—in music history.
Artnet interviews painter Ana Benaroya, whose bold paintings of women communicate queer desire.
Hyperallergic reviews Ellen Warner’s new book The Second Half: Forty Women Reveal Life After Fifty, a celebration of the strength and insight of women across the world.
Shows We Want to See:
At François Ghebaly in Los Angeles, Victoria Gitman’s exhibition Everything is Surface: Twenty Years of Painting presents the artist’s miniature oil paintings of closely observed surfaces: dyed furs of vintage handbags, geometric tessellations of sequins or beads, and glinting costume jewelry. Artnet recently interviewed the artist. On view through May 7, 2022.
At the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Our Selves: Photographs by Women Artists from Helen Kornblum reframes restrictive notions of womanhood, exploring the connections between photography, feminism, civil rights, Indigenous sovereignty, and queer liberation. Featuring works by Carrie Mae Weems, Catherine Opie, and Cara Romero, among others. The Guardian recently reviewed the exhibition. On view through October 2.