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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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Tamarind Artist Spotlight: The Eclectic, Energetic Kiki Smith
Posted: August 1, 2011
Category: Artist Spotlight
The career of Kiki Smith can best be described as eclectic. Born in 1954, her earliest and most constant exposure to art was through the work of her father, sculptor...
A deep auburn-colored octopus hovers above a larger, black spider with fuzzy legs, fangs, and blue eyes against a white background. There is a small white and yellow flower on the spider’s thorax and two red dots on each side of the flower.

Art Herstory
Posted: July 25, 2011
Category: Artist Spotlight
Discrimination in the art world is not a new topic, and since the second wave of feminism, more focus has been placed on discrimination against women artists. (The second wave...
Reclining light skinned nude woman seen from behind wearing a gorilla mask on bright yellow background. Large black text reads, "Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?" Smaller black and red text reads, "Less than 3% of artists in the Modern Art sections are women, but 83% of the nudes are female."

Guerrilla Girls Talk Back: Guerrilla Girls in Venice
Posted: July 21, 2011
Category: Artist Spotlight
Some of the most recent works in NMWA’s The Guerrilla Girls Talk Back are from the Girls’s 2005 showing at the Venice Biennale, a contemporary art fair that has taken...
Reclining light skinned nude woman seen from behind wearing a gorilla mask on bright yellow background. Large black text reads, "Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?" Smaller black and red text reads, "Less than 3% of artists in the Modern Art sections are women, but 83% of the nudes are female."

Living out Desire through Julia Jacquette’s Work
Posted: July 18, 2011
Category: Artist Spotlight
NMWA’s current exhibition, Pressing Ideas: Fifty Years of Women’s Lithographs from Tamarind, features one of Julia Jacquette’s recent works, White Square (2004).
View of an exhibition space with white and lilac walls. There are several prints and lithographs hanging on the walls.

Pressing Ideas: Fifty Years of Women’s Lithographs from Tamarind, Artist Spotlight: Elaine de Kooning
Posted: July 12, 2011
Category: Artist Spotlight
Elaine (Fried) de Kooning (1918–89), primarily known for her Abstract Expressionist portrait paintings, was also an influential art teacher at institutions including Yale University, Carnegie-Mellon University, Parsons School of Design,...
View of an exhibition space with white and lilac walls. There are several prints and lithographs hanging on the walls.

Ask Heather Monthly Feature: Treasures of the Library and Research Center: exploring the Doris Lee Archive
Posted: July 1, 2011
Category: Artist Spotlight
Want to know more about a lesser-known woman artist? The history of NMWA? A history of fashion worn to NMWA Galas? Heather Slania, director of NMWA’s Library and Research Center,...
Two rows of colorfully painted fruits on a white background, mostly red apples with slices cut out of them. Other fruits depicted include plums, a banana, grapes, a green apple, and a lemon.

From Pressing Ideas: Fifty Years of Women’s Lithographs from Tamarind, Artist Spotlight: Polly Apfelbaum
Posted: June 23, 2011
Category: Artist Spotlight
Inspired by popular culture and, to a lesser extent, feminism, Polly Apfelbaum compels viewers to think about the pleasure of the aesthetic experience. A contemporary printmaker and mixed-media artist, Apfelbaum is...
Twelve vertical columns, each a different color, of repeating flower, pinwheel, and starburst shapes on a white background.

Artist Spotlight: Dorothea Lange—Behind the Lens of an American Icon
Posted: May 9, 2011
Category: Artist Spotlight
Dorothea Lange’s photograph of Migrant Mother with Three Children, Nipomo, California is a haunting image, epitomizing an era of hardship that has truly stood the test of time. But who...
An installation view of a gallery space with white walls and a gray floor. On the wall facing the viewer it says "Eye Wonder: Photography from the Bank of America Collection" in blue and pink letters.

Artist Spotlight: Gertrude Käsebier as Photography Pioneer
Posted: April 18, 2011
Category: Artist Spotlight
One of the artists featured in Eye Wonder: Photography from the Bank of America Collection is Gertrude Käsebier (1852—1934), (pronounced “KAY-zerr-beer”), one of the most influential photographers of the early...
Ethereal black-and-white photograph of a women wearing a long white dress and gossamer veil, sitting in a stable, holding a swaddled infant. Dramatically illuminated by a shaft of light streaming in, she gazes down at the child cradled in her arms.

Artist Spotlight: May Stevens—Redefining History
Posted: April 4, 2011
Category: Artist Spotlight
Learn more about artist May Stevens, whose work SoHo Women Artists (1978) is featured in the NMWA collection.
Life-sized, full-length portraits of 12 individuals form a frieze-like composition against a saturated lapis-blue background. Most of those portrayed are noted feminist artists and critics. Details from the artist's earlier paintings appear above and to t