FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Please List
"HERSTORY: Moving Forward"
March 3–27, 2021
There will be a Virtual opening on zoom of HERSTORY: Monday, March 8, International Women's Day, 5pm. Please rsvp viridianartistsinc@gmail.com for evite.
Marie-Ange Hoda Ackad * Leslie Adkins * Kelynn Alder
Angelique Ellyn Anderson * Jenny Belin * D.K. Barbieri * Renee Borkow
Dorothy Braudy * Ellen Burnett * Kasmira Cade * Irene Christensen * May DeViney
Arlene Finger * Deb Flagel * Elizabeth Ginsberg * Chris Tucker Haggerty
Maki Hajikano * Halona Hilbertz * Yasmine Iskander * Teresa Jarzynski * Jae Young Kim
Kat King * Angela M. LaMonte * Anna Lyle * Shawn Marshall * Sai Morikawa
Vernita N’Cognita * Nancy Nicol * Petronia Paley * Sarah Riley * Melissa Schainker
Aja Simone * Jeanne Steers * Jenifer R. Stern * Vicky Tesmer
“Some women choose to follow men, and some choose to follow their dreams. If you’re wondering which way to go, remember that your career will never wake up and tell you that it doesn’t love you anymore.” – Lady Gaga
Chelsea NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present an exhibition of outstanding art by and about women. The show extends from March 3–27, 2021. The gallery is closed temporary due to the pandemic, but you are invited to view the exhibit in our virtual gallery on our website at www.viridianartists.com. There will be a virtual opening of HERSTORY Monday, March 8, International Women's Day, 5pm. Please rsvp at viridianartistsinc@gmail.com for evite.
Since 1987, March has been designated Women’s History Month and because of many activities having to be canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, this year’s theme remains the same as last year’s: ‘Valiant Women of the Vote: Refusing to Be Silenced,’ a celebration of the 19th Amendment.
The art in this exhibit, all by women artists, explores a wide variety of questions, doubts, hopes, fears and angers that women have in today’s world. In too many ways, women are still struggling to erase the gender gap. Sadly, female artists still must struggle to gain recognition and value equal to that of male artists, so for this exhibit only, we invited only women artists to participate.
Feminism entered its 4th wave in 2012 or so, epitomized by the MeToo Movement and other activities focusing on the empowerment of women. In 2014, an attractive young actor dressed in a black t-shirt and jeans wore a video camera hidden on her body to record how men reacted as she passed them. The 2-minute video “10 hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman,” was created by Hollaback, an advocacy group dedicated to ending street harassment. That same year, Emma Sulkowitcz, a Columbia University student created an endurance performance for her senior thesis in which she carried a 50 lb mattress after being raped in her dorm room, demanding that the student who raped her be expelled. She carried the mattress to her graduation in 2015.
There are differing theories regarding how women lost the power we had in pre-history. Leonard Shlain, who wrote ‘The Goddess Versus the Alphabet” feels that it was the invention of the written word that helped the female goddess lose her power. Mark Dyble, an anthropologist who led a study at University College London, felt that the development of an agrarian society and the accumulation of property was responsible for gender inequality.
Do we have more courage than decades ago? We were so tough in the 70’s for we felt we could succeed at anything and we were willing to fight the necessary battles, but sadly most of those same battles continue. Young women today think all that is going to change, but a recent study from McKinsey and LeanIn.org estimates that it will take 100 years for women to achieve gender equality in Corporate America. And in the rest of the world, it will take even longer.
Fortunately, women can do it all as they have for eons. Nurturing, providing physical and emotional bulwarks, cooking the dinner, keeping the house in order, foraging for food and keeping a job as well. Perhaps all but fighting the wars – though sadly, we can do that too, now.
The pandemic has altered and affected our reality so significantly that it is hard to know what matters beyond surviving. Still, we must continue to realize the importance of art and culture to reflect our wishes for the future and our memories of the past. The digital world will remain important even after we are no longer forced to isolate, so Viridian is inviting you to view this exhibit of outstanding art by women in our digital gallery at www.viridianartists.com to see how women artists view the situation of women in the world today.
Gallery hours: temporarily by appointment only
For further information please contact Vernita Nemec, Gallery Director at viridianartistsinc@gmail.com
or view the gallery website: www.viridianartists.com