Revival

A woman lying on her back gazes confidently out at viewer adorned and surrounded by polished bullet casings
Jun 23 to Sep 10, 2017

Revival presents contemporary women sculptors and photo-based artists whose arresting aesthetics and intense subject matter spur the viewer into a transcendent encounter with the art object. Spectacle and visual enchantment undergird much contemporary art. Yet the artists gathered here harness the illimitability of scale, technique, and effect in sculpture and photography explicitly to reanimate deep-rooted emotions related to the human experience. Their imagery elicits a ripple of exhilaration, a shiver of fear, or a wave of anxiety rather than merely tantalizing the eye.

Through highly allusive depictions of human and other animal bodies, each artist in Revival connects to the unconscious. Video projections, large-scale photographs, and hanging sculptures create immersive, mesmeric environments. Smaller, meticulously wrought works made from hair, yarn, velvet, wax, marble, brambles, or taxidermied birds draw the viewer close, beckoning toward sensations that spark memory and emotion.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts’ contemporary collection is rich in the mediums of sculpture and photography, which women continue to expand, recharge, and renew. A survey of the museum’s collection in its 30th year inspired this exhibition, which is enriched by important loans from public and private collections as well as artists’ studios. Revival illuminates women who regenerate sculpture and photo-based art to profound expressive effect.

Featured artists:

Louise Bourgeois, Sonya Clark, Petah Coyne, Cathy de Monchaux, Lalla Essaydi, Anna Gaskell, Sonia Gomes, Charlotte Gyllenhammar, Maria Marshall, Polly Morgan, Deborah Paauwe, Patricia Piccinini, Alison Saar, Beverly Semmes, Joana Vasconcelos, Bettina von Zwehl

 

Old fashioned telephone handset with seven baby chick heads coming out of the receiver.

Polly Morgan, Receiver, 2009; Taxidermy quail chicks and Bakelite telephone handset, 9 x 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Ilene Gutman; © Polly Morgan; Photo by Lee Stalsworth

Exhibition Sponsors

Revival is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The exhibition is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional funding provided by Share Fund; the Sue J. Henry and Carter G. Phillips Exhibition Fund; the Judith A. Finkelstein Exhibition Fund; American Airlines, the official airline of the museum’s 30th Anniversary; and NMWA’s Ohio Advisory Group.

  • American airlines
  • Artworks

Exhibition Gallery

Three long fabric trains in two shades of blue, mounted on a far wall and cascading onto the floor like a waterfall.
Beverly Semmes, Blue Gowns, 1993; Chiffon and crushed velvet, approx. 30 x 31 ½ x 30 ft.; Courtesy of Rubell Family Collection, Miami
A woman lying on her back gazes confidently out at viewer adorned and surrounded by polished bullet casings
Lalla Essaydi, Bullets Revisited #3, 2012; Three chromogenic prints mounted on aluminum, 66 x 150 in. overall; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Purchased with funds provided by Jacqueline Badger Mars, Sunny Scully Alsup and William Alsup, Mr. Sharad Tak and Mrs. Mahinder Tak, Marcia and Frank Carlucci, and Nancy Nelson Stevenson; © Lalla Essaydi
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The Artist,

Alison Saar

Alison Saar creates artworks that frequently transform found objects to reflect themes of cultural and social identity, history, and religion.
A light-skinned, adult woman speaking with one hand extended and the other touching her neck in a white gallery filled with her colorful artworks depicting African-American women. She has curly gray hair, glasses, and wears a simple, black, sleeveless top and a necklace.

The Artist,

Joana Vasconcelos

Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos creates sculptures and installations that explore consumer culture, collective identity, and our assumptions about what constitutes art.
A light-skinned adult woman with bobbed brown hair wears a black sleeveless dress. She smiles wide and leans her hands back against a railing. Behind her is the lower portion of a large colorful fabric sculpture in front of a white wall.

The Artist,

Louise Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois is considered one of the most inventive and influential sculptors of the 20th century for her use of unconventional materials and allusive psychological content.
Black-and-white photograph of an older woman with her short, dark hair brushed back. Sitting with her left hand raised, her deeply lined face looks off-camera, her eyes squinting slightly and her lips pursed. She wears a gold earring, gold wedding ring and a white shirt.

The Artist,

Petah Coyne

Petah Coyne evokes intensely personal associations in sculptures made of incredibly varied materials.
A black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned adult older woman seen from the chin up. She has a salt-and-pepper bob haircut and wears a dark turtleneck.

The Artist,

Lalla Essaydi

Using the lens of her personal experience, Lalla Essaydi reveals the complexity of Arab female identity by challenging stereotypes she has encountered in both the East and the West.

The Artist,

Cathy de Monchaux

Cathy de Monchaux creates provocative sculptures of seemingly incongruous materials, like leather, fur, velvet, chalk dust, and brass.

The Artist,

Charlotte Gyllenhammar

Swedish-born Charlotte Gyllenhammar discovered that working with “physical material with weight” enabled her to more fully investigate and express the human condition.
A light-skinned adult woman with slightly curled blonde hair and a green top smiles while standing in front of several people in shadow.

The Artist,

Polly Morgan

Art by talented taxidermist Polly Morgan highlights the beauty in animal forms.
A color photograph of a light-skinned woman with blonde hair. She stands in profile, her head turned toward the camera, wearing gold-colored hoop earrings and a dark top with a multicolored print. Behind her, metal frames divide a translucent surface into a grid.

The Artist,

Patricia Piccinini

Patricia Piccinini’s sculptures of hybrid creatures question the implications of biotechnologies and humanity’s encroachment into “natural” processes.
A color photograph of Patricia Piccinini. The light-skinned woman stands with her arms folded in front of her, smiling, wearing a dark sweater. Her brunette hair falls softly to her chest. She wears an ornate silver-colored necklace with jewel-colored ornaments.

The Artist,

Sonya Clark

Textile artist Sonya Clark interweaves craft, history, and race to create mixed-media works that celebrate Blackness and address racial tensions and stereotypes.
A woman with medium-dark skin tone and short black hair smiles into the camera. She wears black glasses, a white and yellow knit top and gold earrings.

Related Media

Videos

Watch videos from around the web about the artists featured in Revival, including interviews and studio visits.
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