Apr 14 to Aug 11, 2024

Visionary artists reimagine the past, present alternate realities, and inspire audiences to create different futures. During the past few years, our world has been transformed by a global pandemic, advocacy for social reform, and political division. How have these extraordinary times inspired artists? Works by the 28 artists featured in New Worlds: Women to Watch 2024 explore these ideas from perspectives that shift across geographies, cultural viewpoints, and time.

One of the first major exhibitions to follow NMWA’s reopening after renovation, New Worlds will immerse visitors in the museum’s renewed spaces. It is the seventh and largest installment of the museum’s Women to Watch exhibition series. Presented every three years, Women to Watch is a dynamic collaboration between the museum and its network of outreach committees. The committees participating in New Worlds worked with curators in their regions to create shortlists of artists. From this list, NMWA curators selected the artists and works to exhibit at the museum in 2024.

New Worlds features works by Irina Kirchuk (Argentina), Saskia Jordá (Arizona), Aimée Papazian (Arkansas), Nicki Green (Northern California), April Banks (Southern California), Meryl McMaster (Canada), Francisca Rojas Pohlhammer (Chile), Ana María Hernando (Colorado), Randa Maroufi (France), Marianna Dixon Williams (Georgia), Sophia Pompéry (Germany), Mona Cliff (Greater Kansas City Area), Rajyashri Goody (India), Hannan Abu-Hussein (Israel), Irene Fenara (Italy), Ai Hasegawa (Japan), Daniela Rivera (Massachusetts), SHAN Wallace (Mid-Atlantic Region), Alexis McGrigg (Mississippi), Eliza Naranjo Morse (New Mexico), Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya (New York), Migiwa Orimo (Ohio), Graciela Arias (Peru), Marina Vargas (Spain), Arely Morales (Texas), Noémie Goudal (U.K.), Molly Vaughan (Washington), and Sarah Ortegon (Wyoming).

Three sets of different colored rope – beige, gray, and black – are equidistantly nailed to a wall. On the floor at the bottom of each set of rope is a pair of individualized white plaster cast feet.

Saskia Jordá, Raíces (Roots), 2019; Felt, thread, cotton yarn, plaster, and wooden spools, 78 x 64 x 16 in.; © Saskia Jordá, Photo by Claire A Warden

Exhibition Sponsors

New Worlds: Women to Watch 2024 is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts and sponsored by participating committees in Argentina, Arizona, Arkansas, Northern California, Southern California, Canada, Chile, Colorado, France, Georgia, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Greater Kansas City Area, Massachusetts, the Mid-Atlantic Region, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Peru, Spain, Texas, the United Kingdom, Washington, and Wyoming.

The exhibition is made possible by the Clara M. Lovett Emerging Artists Fund and the Sue J. Henry and Carter G. Phillips Exhibition Fund, with major support provided by Patti and George White, Share Fund, Linda Mann, the Pennsylvania Committee of NMWA, San Francisco Advocacy for NMWA, and the UK Friends of NMWA. Additional funding is provided by Robyn D. Collins, Elizabeth Leach Gallery, the Honorable Mary V. Mochary, Miller Shah LLP, and S&P Global. Further support comes from Daiwa Securities Group Inc.; Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc.; S&R Evermay; Saffronart Foundation; S M B C Nikko Securities Inc.; Shiseido Company, Limited; Sony Group Corporation; Suntory Holdings Limited; Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings, Inc.; THE TOKYO CLUB; Noriko Kashiwagi; and Ayako Weissman.

The catalogue for New Worlds is supported by members and friends of the Wyoming Committee of NMWA, in memory of Lisa Claudy Fleischman.

The museum extends appreciation to the Embassy of France in the United States with the support of Villa Albertine, the British Embassy Washington, the Embassy of Peru in the United States, the Embassy of the Argentine Republic, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany Washington, and the Embassy of Italy with the Italian Cultural Institute of Washington.

Exhibition Gallery

An orange and yellow gas mask embellished with gold beading sitting atop two stacked bricks with beige fringe hanging from its base. — Mona Cliff/HanukGahNé (Spotted Cloud), *Past/Presence/Future*, 2020; Gas mask, seed heads, smoked brain-tanned hide, acrylic paint, Oklahoma red dirt, and matte medium; 41 x 10 x 5 in.; Great Plains Art Collection, Museum purchase through the generosity of Lincoln Community Foundation and BNSF Railway Foundation; Photo by Bill Ganzel, Ganzel Group Communications

An oil painting of three women standing against a white wall, looking at the viewer. The women are wearing casual clothes and have medium skin and dark, tied-back hair. The woman on the left is older and holds a mop to the ground with both hands. The woman in the middle holds a spray bottle and rag. The woman on the right rests her arm on the back of a folded metal chair. — Arely Morales, *Una por una (One by One)*, 2019; Oil on canvas, 95 x 75 x 3 in.; Courtesy of Talley Dunn Gallery

A nude life-size white marble statue of a figure stands on a platform. One fisted arm is raised above its head while the figure shows one breast surgically removed. — Marina Vargas, *Intra-Venus*, 2019–21; Carrara marble, 77 ½ x 26 ¾ x 26 in.; Courtesy of the artist; Photo by Oak Taylor-Smith

Group of women gathered outside of a shop on the corner at night. The lighted signs above the shop read “Sandwichiere” and “La Princiere” — Randa Maroufi, *La Princière*, from the series “Les Intruses,” 2019; Color photograph, 31 ½ x 59 in.; Work produced by l’Institut des Cultures d’Islam as part of the Embellir Paris project initiated by the City of Paris; Courtesy of FRAC Bourgogne; © Randa Maroufi

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Related Media

Gallery Labels

A horizontal cross section of wood with the exterior bark covered in multicolored beads.

Access the exhibition text in a scalable format for ease of reading as you explore the galleries or after your visit.

View Gallery Labels

Catalogue

An exhibition catalog with the title "New Worlds: Women to Watch 2024" written in green across a white background filled with ceramic trees, birds, cars, and small buildings.

This fully illustrated catalogue highlights the exhibition’s 28 featured artists. Imagery of their art appears alongside personal statements about their ideas and visions.

Buy the Catalogue