Modern women, modern art close Sunday at the Women's Museum

April Banks (b. 1972, Takoma Park, Maryland), Future Ancient, 2022, fused glass, cut metal, and LED light panel. The label says the work "proposes an alternate path to self-knowledge, equally focused on past lineage and future legacy."/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The large exhibition, New Worlds: Women to Watch 2024, featuring works by 28 women from around the globe (some of whom have more than one work on display) is set to close Sunday at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and if you want a glimpse of what the younger bunch (or those generally under age 50) is thinking artwise, rush to see it, but be advised, you'll want to hold on to your mind which may be blown away by the creativity and the artists' visions of the future, the past and present.

It's beyond the wildest of imaginations and all have a theme and deeply personal message about what they've done, the purpose and why they have used the materials they chose. 

But, hope for the future? 

I couldn't find any, maybe due to my (aging) shades and perspective. What I saw was a dark and gloomy vision of the future, but that was before Kamala was nominated. (She who brings joy.) Since then, perhaps there is room for some optimism? None I found here.

Kathryn Wat, deputy director for art, programs and public engagement and chief curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, welcomes visitors to the exhibition, New Worlds:  Women to Watch 2024. On the left is Intra-Venus, 2019-21 in carrara marble by Marina Vargas (b. 1980, Granada, Spain)/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Mona Cliff/HanukGahNé (Spotted Cloud, b. 1977, Prescott, AZ), Conjured Topography, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Prescoia seed beads, maple wood, beeswax, copal resin, pine resin, benzoin resin, and thread on plywood. The label says the "beads pay homage to nature" which required Cliff to spend "hundreds of hours adding thousands of beads to the wood surface," to honor "the labor-intensive work of women artisans."

Detail of Conjured Topography, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie

SHAN (sic) Wallace (b. 1991, Baltimore), Pale Blue Egun, 2024.  Flashe, gesso, paper, gouache, oil stick, shells, and crackle paste on wood/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The label says the artist "pays homage to the spectrum of Black experience in the United States" fusing "folklore and fantasy to explore belief systems and rituals related to death for the Black community. Motifs such as dice, shells, and a chicken serve as offerings for or methods of communication with the dead."

NMWA’s Women to Watch series is presented every three years and features emerging and underrepresented women artists who work in regions of the world where the museum has outreach committees.

On its website, NMWA notes that in the last decade just 11 percent of all acquisitions by "prominent American museums" were by women. With its promotion and exhibitions, NMWA hopes to draw greater attention to this dearth of female artists presence.

Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya (b. 1988, Atlanta), the primitive sign of wanting, 2024,
vintage TV screens, raspberry pis, and internet-connected receipt printers which invites viewer to interact with the work by scanning a QR code found on one of the screens/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The label quotes the artist who says her work is a “'call to moral vigilance,'” inviting "viewers to consider the ethical implications of human advancement in the face of climate change and rapidly changing technology. Assembled from discarded artifacts and found objects, this interactive installation challenges visitors to confront their moral biases about issues facing us today—and to imagine the possibilities of tomorrow." 

Detail of the primitive sign of wanting, 2024/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Detail of the primitive sign of wanting, 2024/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Sophia Pompéry (b. 1984, Berlin), Fluten (Floods), 2023
Steel, perforated latex, and LED lights/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The label says "Pompéry’s practice lies at the intersection of art, science, and philosophy, investigating the artifice of constructs such as money, units of measure, and time. Fluten comprises an aerial map of recorded levels of light pollution in the Arctic Circle.  The haphazard placement of the rods implies the futility of creating records of the natural world—its time scale is beyond human comprehension."

Irene Fenara (b. 1990, Bologna, Italy), Three Thousand TIgers, 2020
Wool and silk tapestry/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The label says: "Fenara explores how technology can change our perception of reality. The artist feeds a data set of three thousand images of tigers—approximately the current number of living tigers in the wild—into a generative algorithm" resulting in "a distorted digital fauna."

She then "turned the patterns into tapestries, referring to the practice of making animal-hide rugs, and had them produced in India, where most living tigers are found."  I can't see any tigers here, but my imagination is more limited than the computer's.

Detail of Three Thousand TIgers, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 Detail of Three Thousand TIgers, 2020/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Molly Vaughan (b. 1977, London) Project 42: Gwen Amber Rose Araju, Newark, CA, 2021/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Inkjet- and silkscreen-printed fabrics with headdress. The label says this "responds to violence toward transgender people in the United States. The artist and her team create garments that commemorate the lives of murdered transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals. Using Google Earth, Vaughan takes screen shots of locations where these murders have occurred. She manipulates the digital images to create abstract patterns, printing them on fabric to make into clothing that can be worn by a collaborator during an activation."

Nicki Green (b. 1986, Boston), 
Anointed (double bidet basin with faucets), 2019/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Glazed vitreous china with epoxy. The label says Green "interrogates gendered binaries of Judaic ritual baths that complicate participation for trans individuals. Drawing from her Jewish background and gender politics, she transforms urinals and bidets into sacred wash basins that can affirm the holiness of trans bodies." This is one of two works on this theme by Green in the exhibition.

Ana María Hernando (b. 1959, Buenos Aires), detail of 
Nadar en el diluvio de aguas caldas (To Swim in the Deluge of Warm Waters), 2024/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Tulle, wood, metal lattice, and felt.
The label says the artist includes "association with feminine clothing and sewing" to create "monuments that celebrate the collective work of generations of unacknowledged women. Her works manifest the feminine as joyful and inexorable."

Works pictured above are those which were of the most interest to me, but all of them produced interest and awe.  You'll see!

Two local artists (April Banks, Takoma Park, MD, and SHAN (sic) Wallace, Baltimore) are represented.

A soft cover exhibition catalog of 100 pages is available in the shop or online for $23.95.

What: New Worlds:  Women to Watch, 2024


When: Closing Sunday, August 11, 2024. The museum is open Tuesday through Sundays, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Where: The National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005

Admission: $16, adults; $13, D.C. residents and those over age 70; free admission for members, those under age 21, and disabled persons and attendant. Free for all on the first Sunday and second Wednesday of every month.

For more information: 202-783-5000 or visit nmwa.org.

Metro stations: Metro Center (exit at 13th Street and walk two blocks north) or (better) walk a short distance from McPherson Square.

patricialesli@gmail.com