Furies, Fairies, Visionaries
January 25 - March 16, 2019
Opening Reception: January 24 from 6 - 8pm
Gallery Hours: Tues.-Sat. 12 - 6pm
29 East 22nd Street New York, NY 10010
Pen + Brush is pleased to present the inaugural exhibition of its 125th anniversary celebration, Furies, Fairies, Visionaries, curated by 21c Chief Curator and Museum Director, Alice Gray Stites.
Furies, Fairies, Visionaries features works by thirty artists utilizing the visual languages of both fantasy and abstraction to claim and create space. Addressing gender, age, and sexuality; the evolution of urban and natural environments; the impact of technology, and more, these artists articulate profound, incisive, perspectives on current issues and conditions. Inspired by personal experiences, popular culture, concerns about climate change and socio-political inequities, as well as by formal and philosophical explorations of the nature of space and perception, these works demonstrate the vital need for women’s visions and voices to be seen and heard. Whether navigating interior, imaginative realms or exterior, physical reality, women artists are taking and making more space in the struggle to create a more inclusive, equitable world.
From Kate Clark’s haunting animal/human hybrids, Monica Cook’s biomorphic Basket sculpture and Katja Loher’s shaman-inspired video, to Nidaa Badwan’s photographic documentation of her One Hundred Days of Solitude and Laetitia Soulier’s architectural fantasies and more, these works resist and subvert the constraints and binaries defined by patriarchy. Rachel Lee Hovnanian’s painting, Questionable Reputation evokes the terms and technologies used to control and objectify women, while Zoe Buckman uses feminine materials (wedding dresses, lingerie, dishtowels) to confront the denigration of women, simultaneously highlighting the power of the female gender, and inviting us all to assert our strength and our presence. Alyson Shotz, Anne Lindberg, Sharon Louden, and others examine and create new perceptions of both physical and abstract space, challenging traditional, male-centric notions of how the world is designed, on a macro and micro level. As heirs to the work of the Second Wave Women’s movement that transformed art and society in the 1970s, these 21st- century feminists illuminate how the personal and the public, the narrative and the abstract, are indeed political, today perhaps more than ever.
Furies, Fairies, Visionaries marks the first major New York exhibition curated by 21c’s Alice Gray Stites. Selections for the exhibition were made by special invitation from the curator as well as from portfolio submissions to Pen + Brush. We would like to thank 21c Museum collection, C24 Gallery, Carolina Nitsch, Claire Oliver Gallery, Postmasters Gallery, Slag Gallery, and Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects for their support of this exhibition.
Participating artists:
Nidaa Badwan
Nancy Baker
Heather Brammeier
Zoe Buckman
Kate Clark
Monica Cook
E.V. Day
Ali Deane
Summer J. Hart
Rachel Lee Hovnanian
Rennie Jones
Danni Lin
Anne Lindberg
Katja Loher
Sharon Louden
Christine Mace
Laura Magnusson
Paola Martinez
Jillian Mayer
Felicity Maynard
Anne Peabody
Lina Puerta
Rowan Renee
Natalie Rivera
Naomi Safran-Hon
Alyson Shotz
Laetitia Soulier
Aleksandra Stone
Alida Wilkinson
Saya Woolfalk
About Pen + Brush:
Pen + Brush is a 125-year-old publicly supported not-for-profit fighting for gender equity in the arts. P+B provides a platform to showcase the work of female artists and writers to a broader audience with the ultimate goal of effecting real change within the marketplace. We encourage and mentor emerging professionals and aim to expose the stereotypes and misconceptions that perpetuate gender-based exclusion, lack of recognition and the devaluation of skill that is still experienced by women in the arts. All art work is for sale, 25% of every sale comes back in to feed the organization’s work.
About 21c Museum:
21c is North America’s first museum dedicated solely to collecting and exhibiting the art of the 21st century and open free of charge 24 hours daily. A multi-venue museum with over 75,000 square feet of exhibition space across eight locations, 21c presents solo and group exhibitions and site-specific, commissioned installations, as well as a variety of cultural events. Founded by Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, collectors and preservationists who are committed to expanding access to thought-provoking contemporary art, each 21c property features public exhibition space combined with a boutique hotel and chef-driven restaurant. Since launching in 2006, 21c Museum has presented nearly 100 exhibitions, including Hybridity: The New Frontier; Alter Ego: A Decade of Work by Anthony Goicolea; Aftermath: Witnessing War, Countenancing Compassion; Seeing Now; Wild Card: The Art of Michael Combs; Albano Alfonso: Self-Portrait as Light; Pop Stars! Popular Culture and Contemporary Art; Dress Up, Speak Up: Costume and Confrontation; Labor & Materials; The Future is Female; Truth or Dare: A Reality Show; Refuge, and others.
Learn more at www.penandbrush.org or follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@penbrush) and Instagram (@penandbrushnyc). For more information please contact April Hunt (april@sparkplug-pr.com)