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Artist Spotlight

View of the museum from outside showing the Neoclassical building from one corner. The building is a tan-colored stone with an arched doorway, long vertical windows, and detailed molding around the roof.
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Letting Their Hair Down: “Wild” Women at NMWA
Posted: February 6, 2013
Category: Artist Spotlight
What can you guess about a woman from her hair? Whether the ill-fated Ophelia’s disheveled tresses or Rapunzel’s ladder-long locks, hair is often a significant tool in characterization. In art,...
Side-by-side portraits of a light-skinned couple with dark hair sitting in formal postures. Gazing outward, they wear dark clothing with light accents and the woman wears a gold earring and pin. They both hold objects: the woman a brocaded red cloth and the man a book.

Petah Coyne: From Dickens to Dutch Still-life Painting
Posted: January 30, 2013
Category: Artist Spotlight
Disturbingly alluring, Petah Coyne’s Untitled #781 certainly packs a visual punch. The wax-work evokes a plethora of associations, both pleasant and disconcerting. Viewers may be surprised to learn, however, that...
A sculpture hangs in a dark gallery. The sculpture comprises layers of melted pink and white wax that form a dress-like shape hanging from satin-wrapped chains. Its color, shape, and bumpy, lacy texture, evoke a frilly tutu, lavishly frosted wedding cake, or coral.

A Harmony of Opposites: Jiha Moon’s Floating Landscapes
Posted: January 23, 2013
Category: Artist Spotlight
As a “cartographer of cultures,” Jiha Moon strives to be “a visual interpreter of the mixed cultural worlds of [her] generation.” The Atlanta-based artist creates kaleidoscopic works of art that...
Abstract painting features translucent, wave-like turquoise, aquamarine, and fuchsia washes mingled with red lines and hard-edged, matte-pink sinuous shapes bounded by blue and green scales. Other details resolve into a human hand, tree-sprigged mountains, and craggy branches.

Fabulous! Portraits by Michele Mattei: Betye Saar
Posted: October 25, 2012
Category: Artist Spotlight
NMWA’s exhibition Fabulous! Portraits by Michele Mattei presents a selection of Michele Mattei’s photographs of women who have shaped contemporary culture. Mattei, who began her career as a journalist before moving...
View of a gallery space. On a white wall, a photograph of a woman dancing, wearing a red dress, is hanging below the text "Fabulous! Portraits by Michele Mattei."

Fabulous! Portraits by Michele Mattei: Bette Bao Lord
Posted: October 19, 2012
Category: Artist Spotlight
NMWA’s exhibition Fabulous! Portraits by Michele Mattei presents a selection of Michele Mattei’s photographs of women who have shaped contemporary culture. Mattei, who began her career as a journalist before...
View of a gallery space. On a white wall, a photograph of a woman dancing, wearing a red dress, is hanging below the text "Fabulous! Portraits by Michele Mattei."

Fabulous! Portraits by Michele Mattei: Beatrice Wood
Posted: October 12, 2012
Category: Artist Spotlight
Opening today, NMWA’s exhibition Fabulous! Portraits by Michele Mattei presents a selection of Michele Mattei’s photographs of women who have shaped contemporary culture. Mattei, who began her career as a...
View of a gallery space. On a white wall, a photograph of a woman dancing, wearing a red dress, is hanging below the text "Fabulous! Portraits by Michele Mattei."

Happy Birthday, Judy Chicago!
Posted: July 20, 2012
Category: Artist Spotlight
Her vision is to “move beyond the construct of femininity into the un-gendered and free space that should be available for every human being”; her means of achieving it is...
Four hard-edged octagons, each divided into eight pie-slice shapes painted red, pink, orange, yellow, olive green, blue, violet, or lavender, occupy a square, white background. Dark at the wide and narrow ends of each wedge, the hues create the illusion of 3-dimensional forms.

Royalists to Romantics: Spotlight on Marie-Amelie Cogniet
Posted: July 13, 2012
Category: Artist Spotlight
In Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles, and Other French National Collections, 77 works by 35 artists display the talents of French Revolution-era women artists. Their paintings...
View of a gallery space with red walls. A golden mirror with plenty of ornaments is hanging to the left, large historical portraits of women are hanging to the right.

Happy 105th Birthday, Frida Kahlo!
Posted: July 6, 2012
Category: Artist Spotlight
Today, on her 105th birthday, we celebrate Frida Kahlo, whose 143 finished paintings focused on Mexican culture, gender identity, social justice, and often pain. Born on July 6, 1907, to...
A letter, opening with "Mamacita Linda," written in dark ink on a yellowed sheet of paper.

Wonder and Vision: Sister Corita
Posted: June 25, 2012
Category: Artist Spotlight
Sister Mary Corita (later Corita Kent, 1918–1986) created some serigraph screen-prints that were very broad in their allusions and themes, although some of her work embraced specific historical events or...
A white room with a wall in the foreground that has bold, red and orange text that reads ‘R(ad)ical Love: Sister Mary Corita, March 9–July 15, 2012.’ In the background, bold and colorful prints with text are hang on a white wall.