Art Fix Friday: August 16, 2019

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 New York Times interviews artist Maria Qamar, whose bold Pop art speaks to the challenges of being a South Asian millennial.

A Pop Art painting by Maria Qamar featuring two Indian woman with their faces touching, and the comic text bubbles--one says "That's My Didi!" and the other says "From another Bibi!"
Maria Qamar, Didi from Another Bibi, 2019; Photo courtesy of Richard Taittinger Gallery

The artist’s new exhibition Fraaaandship!, at New York City’s Richard Taittinger Gallery, is colorful, politically engaged, and contemplates immigration, misogyny, gender stereotypes, and more. When asked about what she is trying to explore in her works, Qamar mused, “What part of our [South Asian] tradition is tradition and what part…is just patriarchy disguised as tradition? Why can’t we…ditch some of these traditions that are used to police women and convince women to police each other?”

Front-Page Femmes

Ms. magazine interviews former Handmaid’s Tale costume designer Ane Crabtree about her designs and the red dress and winged bonnet that has become an “instantly recognizable symbol of resistance.”

A new mural in Santa Fe calls attention to the disproportionately high rates of violence against Indigenous women in the United States.

Jacqueline Audry’s 1951 lesbian classic, Olivia, has been restored and re-released; Audrey directed a total of 13 features throughout her career—most had female protagonists and many were censored.

Meet the woman-led photography collective that is challenging the sexist and colonial portrayals of Latin America.

Anne Snitow, feminist teacher and activist, has died at age 76.

More than 100 miniature dolls, phallic amulets, necklace beads, and a tiny skull among other objects made of bone, bronze, glass, and amber were uncovered at Pompeii.
More than 100 miniature dolls, phallic amulets, necklace beads, and a tiny skull, among other objects made of bone, bronze, glass, and amber, were uncovered at Pompeii; the researchers determined that the amulets were likely used for adornment or protection in the years before Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79; Photo courtesy Cesare Abbate (ANSA)

Archaeologists in Pompeii have discovered a female sorcerer’s trove of amulets, gems, and charms that may have been used for good fortune, fertility, and to protect against bad luck.

Hyperallergic goes inside the years-long effort to bring the Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists exhibition to fruition.

Nancy Reddin Kienholz, best known for elaborate and explosive installations she created with her husband Edward Kienholz, has died at age 75.

After public outcry, a forthcoming Central Park statue of white suffragettes Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony has been redesigned to include Sojourner Truth. The statue will be unveiled in 2020.

Hyperallergic reviews Lee Krasner: In Living Colour, currently on view at London’s Barbican Centre.

Shows We Want to See

At Jackson Fine Art in Atlanta, two exhibitions suggest that there can be a gendered way of visualizing the natural world. A contemporary series of technicolor Psychscapes by Terri Loewenthal is curated alongside the black-and-white landscapes of 20th-century photographer Ansel Adams, promoting the notion that the male versus female gaze has shaped their approaches, a century apart.

Two landscape photos by Terri Loewenthal,and Ansel Adams are placed side by side; Lowenthal's photo is of a mountain and edited in warm technicolor hues, Adams's photo is in black and white and includes a mountain in the bottom of the frame, but primarily focuses on the vast sky.
Left: Terri Loewenthal, Psychscape 87 (Coffee Pot Rock, AZ), 2018; Right: Ansel Adams, Sierra Nevada, Winter Evening, from the Owens Valley, 1962; Photos courtesy of Jackson Fine Art

At the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich, England, Magdalene Odundo: The Journey of Things presents more than fifty of Odundo’s works with a large selection of objects chosen by the artist from across the globe, spanning 3,000 years.

Chaumet in Majesty: Jewels of Sovereigns Since 1780 is on view at Monaco’s Grimaldi Forum until August 28. The show examines jewelry’s role in the power games of the past through 250 pieces created by the longstanding, luxury French design house. “The principal focus of the show is women of power and the tiaras they wore as witnesses of their destinies,” said Jean-Marc Mansvelt, chief executive of Chaumet.

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