Agency: Feminist Art and Power

January 22 - June 5, 2022

Programs and Events for Agency: Feminist Art & Power
Feminists Are Funny
Saturday, May 21, 2022

Presented in collaboration with The Feminist Art Project
Curated by Karen M. Gutfreund

Agency: Feminist Art and Power brings together the work of womxn artists who represent different cultural backgrounds, generations, geographic locations, LGBTQI and gender identities. The twenty-eight exhibiting artists explore the concept of agency—the capacity to act or exert one’s own power; to act independently and to make free choices. They present work that challenges cultural and political norms, and examines empowerment, identity, gender roles, aging, gender fluidity, reproductive choice, women and work, violence, and more. Agency: Feminist Art and Power gives the public access to cutting edge work and ideas of womxn artists who are exploring urgent social topics that confront our understanding of what shapes us as individuals and communities.

The Museum of Sonoma County is proud to provide space for these important voices, and to introduce audiences to provocative, challenging ideas, and to encourage debate and growth, and the discovery of common ground.

Pictured:
Alyssa Eustaquio, Keeping FEMINISM Fresh, 2013, Mint chewing gum, paper, plastic sleeve and Wrigley's foil chewing gum wrappers
Vanessa Filley, #MeToo, 2018, Archival pigment print
Judy Gelles, You Look Better When You're Smiling, 2016, Translucent Plexiglass

Artists featured: 

Shonagh Adelman                                            Kristine Mays
Dotty Attie                                                          Rosemary Meza-Desplas
Ceciley Blanchard                                             Delilah Montoya
Ria Brodell                                                          Priscilla Otani
Judy Chicago                                                      Lucky Rapp
Cat Del Buono                                                   Jenny Reinhardt
Jessie Edelstein                                                 Sawyer Rose
Sally Edelstein                                                   Joan Semmel
Alyssa Eustaquio                                               Jaune Quick-To-See Smith
Vanessa Filley                                                    Mickalene Thomas
Judy Gelles                                                         Winnie van der Rijn
Guerilla Girls                                                      Martha Wilson
Rozanne Hermelyn Di Silvestro                      Margi Weir
Sonya Kelliher-Combs                                      Nancy Youdelman
Holly Ballard Martz

About the Curator

Karen M. Gutfreund is an independent curator and artist with a focus on feminist and social justice art. She has worked in the Painting & Sculpture Department for MoMA, the Andre Emmerick Gallery, The Knoll Group, the John Berggruen Gallery and the Pacific Art League, and is an art consultant to both corporations and individuals. She served on the board of the Women’s Caucus for Art, the Pacific Art League and the Petaluma Arts Council. She was the National Exhibitions Director for the Women’s Caucus for Art for six years, is a member of ArtTable, the Northern California Representative for The Feminist Art Project, and Curator for UniteWomen.org. To date Gutfreund has created over forty national exhibitions—recent exhibitions include: Deadlocked and Loaded: Disarming America; Not Normal: Art in the Age of Trump; and Embedded Message, Debating the Dream: Truth, Justice and the American Way. She co-curated F213, F*ck U! In the Most Loving Way; and Man as Object: Reversing the Gaze. Karen is partner in Gutfreund Cornett Art, with curator Sherri Cornett, a curatorial partnership that creates art as activism exhibitions, with the motto “changing the world through art” with national touring exhibitions. GCA exhibitions included: Beyond Borders: Stories of im/Migration; Social Justice: It Happens to One, Happens to All; Rise: Empower, Change and Action; Vision: An Artist’s Perspective; What’s Right, What’s Left: Democracy in America; Visural: Sight, Sound and Action. Lastly, Gutfreund is an artist and exhibits extensively around the country. She has a BFA in Photographic Design and a BA in Art History, and a MA (pending) from New York University. Gutfreund has lived in all four corners of the United States and splits her time between Sonoma and New York.

About The Feminist Art Project
The Feminist Art Project (TFAP) is an international collaborative initiative recognizing and advancing the aesthetic, intellectual, and political impact of women on the visual arts, art history, and art practice, past and present. TFAP, founded in 2005 at Rutgers University, presents, documents, and promotes diverse feminist art activities, research, education, and publications through its website, online calendar-archive, public events, and facilitates networking and regional program development throughout the world. It is a strategic grassroots intervention against the ongoing erasure of women artists and arts professionals of all gender expressions from the cultural record. Learn more at feministartproject.rutgers.edu

Agency: Feminist Art and Power is made possible through major funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, Community Foundation Sonoma County, and Diane and Jack Stuppin.

Additional support comes from Ancient Oak Cellars, Judith Blankman and Kevin Kraynak, Donna Brookman and Robert Knight, The Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities - Rutgers University, Barbara Grassechi and Tony Crabb, Amy Pearl, Winnie van der Rijn, Estelle Rogers and Harold Kwalwasser, Diane Scheiman, Smith Story Wine Cellars in memory of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonoma County League of Women Voters, Constance Tell, Jamienne Studley and Gary Smith, and Unturned Stone Wines.

Virtual Experience

Explore the exhibition through 360° imaging! 

This virtual experience is generously provided by Steve Vargas, VARGAS XR "Mind Over Matter."