Tami Bahat | Marian Crostic | Sarah Hadley | Bootsy Holler | Sandra Klein | J.K. Lavin | Lisa McCord

Labkhand Olfatmanesh | Paula Riff | Marjorie Salvaterra | Aline Smithson | Susan Swihart | Brandy Trigueros

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Special homage to Paula Riff

Performance by Labkhand Olfatmanesh

Artists talk moderated by Shana Nys Dambrot

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The first edition of this thought-provoking exhibition showcasing select work by Los Angeles based female artists was held from December 2016 to January 2017, the second edition between 2019 - 2020. Presently, the 2021 - 2022 third edition features thirteen outstanding artists exploring a range of topics, including gender identity and sexuality, some of today’s most pressing and urgent issues affecting women’s rights, and female-led movements around the world that have triggered much-needed social and cultural changes across different countries and communities. This exhibition focuses on the visual feminine perspective, ‘herstories’ told photographically, establishing a very intimate and personal photographic discussion of their particular worldviews.

 

For centuries, androcentrism dominated American history, written by and for cis, able-bodied white men. Women were mostly excluded from history except as subservient subjects. The term “herstory” emerged in the 1970s with the second wave of feminism as a way to share and amplify her story, along with the lesser known stories of women that have helped shape new pathways advancing women’s liberation. There have been many steps towards women’s right to vote, abortion, marriage, as well as advances in women's role in the work-sphere. We have been blessed with a foundation of strong women that laid the groundwork for the lifestyles we are able to lead today. However, we can not be blinded by our own successes and fail to acknowledge the challenges that women all over the world still face today.

 

This exhibition empowers both the visual voices of the artists, as well as the visitors, providing real-life examples and all the more reason to believe that they too can follow their dreams, regardless of how they identify, their body types, decision to procreate, and other societal pressures. Topics concerning gender roles, identity, finding a sense of self and place within nature, performance, tableaus, and transformation are considered within their oeuvres. Some of the featured artists seek to employ a conceptual or experimental approach, including performance and video, while others have opted for a more traditional photographic approach.