Live Dangerously

Crouching in the shadow of a highway overpass, three teenage girls with light skin focus intently on lighting smoke bombs.
Sep 19, 2019, to Jan 20, 2020

Live Dangerously reveals the bold and dynamic ways in which female bodies inhabit and activate the natural world. Twelve groundbreaking photographers, including Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Kirsten Justesen, Xaviera Simmons, and Rania Matar, use humor, drama, ambiguity, and innovative storytelling to illuminate the landscape as means of self-empowerment and personal expression. This presentation is drawn from NMWA’s collection of modern and contemporary photography and enhanced by key loans that feature women connected to nature through the lens of the female gaze.

A major section of the exhibition showcases the performative and fantastical works of Janaina Tschäpe. For the first time, NMWA will exhibit all 100 large-scale photographs in the series “100 Little Deaths” (1996–2002), in which the artist stages her own body within sites from her travels around the world.

While some of the featured artists evoke a quiet, reflective relationship with nature, others physically alter and unsettle their environments. Justine Kurland photographs teenage girls setting off smoke bombs, skinny dipping, and climbing trees as a way to rebel against patriarchal institutions and disrupt gendered expectations.

Artists in the exhibition often depict the female body wholly immersed in mountains, oceans, valleys, and deserts. Several of the photographers capture these figures near crashing waves or underwater, as though the ocean’s depths are their natural habitat. Rather than seem daunted by the sublime forces of nature, the women portrayed in Live Dangerously appear carefree, intrepid, and fierce.

Featured artists: Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Anna Gaskell, Dana Hoey, Mwangi Hutter, Graciela Iturbide, Kirsten Justesen, Justine Kurland, Rania Matar, Ana Mendieta, Laurie Simmons, Xaviera Simmons, and Janaina Tschäpe.

In front of a stormy ocean, a woman with light skin and blonde, wind-blown hair stands with head turned in profile and eyes closed.

Rania Matar, Rayven, Miami Beach, Florida, from the series “SHE,” 2019; Archival pigment print, 37 x 44 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Museum purchase: Funds provided by Sunny Scully Alsup and Elva Ferrari-Graham; © Rania Matar

Exhibition Sponsors

Live Dangerously is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The exhibition is made possible by the Sue J. Henry and Carter G. Phillips Exhibition Fund, with additional support provided by the museum’s members.

    Exhibition Gallery

    Photograph of ancient ruins with a woman lying facedown on grass in front of moss-covered stone steps that lead to a stone structure.
    Janaina Tschäpe, Angervat, from the series “100 Little Deaths,” 2002; Chromogenic color print, 31 x 47 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection; © Janaina Tschäpe; Image courtesy of Janaina Tschäpe studio
    Crouching in the shadow of a highway overpass, three teenage girls with light skin focus intently on lighting smoke bombs.
    Justine Kurland, Smoke Bombs, 2000; Satin-laminated chromogenic color print, 30 x 40 in.; NMWA, Gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection; © Justine Kurland, Courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York
    White text reads "Live Dangerously" pops against a bright blue wall. In the background numerous photographs hang on the walls from Janaina Tschäpe's "100 Little Deaths" series.
    Live Dangerously Installation, Photo by Lee Stalsworth
    \ \ \

    The Artist,

    Louise Dahl-Wolfe

    As a staff photographer for Harper’s Bazaar, Louise Dahl-Wolfe introduced a witty naturalism to the staid conventions of fashion photography and helped pioneer the use of color film.
    Black-and-white photo of a light-skinned adult woman leaning out from behind a large studio camera. Wearing glasses, a white turban and a stripped top, she smiles with an expression of humor. A large spotlight sits behind her and she holds a piece of large format film.

    The Artist,

    Kirsten Justesen

    Pioneer of Body art, Kirsten Justesen is best-known for her feminist performances and sculptures that center on her nude body and address issues of gender, politics, physics, and time.
    Close-up black-and-white studio portrait of a light-skinned adult woman in profile. Her hair is pulled back and she wears a crown of icicles. Small streams of liquid run down her face and neck.

    The Artist,

    Janaina Tschäpe

    Working across photography, video, painting, drawing, and sculpture, Janaina Tschäpe strives to reinvent perceptions of nature and the body.
    A light-skinned adult woman with medium-length curly blond hair wears a black pinstripe blazer over a white blouse. Her mouth is open in speech and arms bent in front of her. Four large color landscape photographs are on the white wall behind her.

    The Artist,

    Justine Kurland

    Justine Kurland is best known for photographs of adolescent girls, nude pregnant women and mothers, and commune inhabitants arrayed in spectacular, lush landscapes.
    A light-skinned adult womand with bobbed brown hair stands against a white wall wearing a sleeveless dress with a colorful geometric print. On the wall behind her hangs a color photograph of a light-skinned person working outside under the hood of an old red car.

    The Artist,

    Ingrid Mwangi (Mwangi Hutter)

    Throughout her career, performance and video artist Ingrid Mwangi has explored issues of “hyphenated” identity.
    A medium-dark-skinned adult woman with short dark curly hair, wearing a white crochet top, stands with hands clasped in front of her. On the wall behind her are two large color photographs of medium-skinned adult women.

    The Artist,

    Graciela Iturbide

    Graciela Iturbide’s photographs reveal the daily lives, customs, and rituals of Mexico’s underrepresented native cultures.
    A black-and-white photograph of an adult woman with short, dark hair looking into the viewfinder of a small film camera. She is outdoors with grass behind her. She holds the camera with her right hand and focuses the lense with her left. She is smiling as she looks into it.
    #WomenLiveDangerously