Alice Neel in Taking Space
15 September 2023—7 January 2024
Group exhibition at The Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ, USA
Inspired by a show at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) in 2021, the new exhibition Taking Space: Contemporary Women Artists and the Politics of Scale will display ten stunning artworks from PAFA alongside foundational works from the Montclair Art Museum’s collection of American women artists.
This groundbreaking exhibition invites viewers to consider how space, size, scale, and repetition can be interpreted as political gestures in the practices of many women artists. Together, this comprehensive group of artworks reveal the varied approaches of women artists for whom space is a critical feature of their work, whether they occupy significant space on walls or engage three-dimensionally with gallery spaces through sculpture and installation. Also addressed is the visual power of seriality and repetition as spatial visual practices, as well as the diverse methods of asserting and reclaiming the spaces of women’s bodies. On view in Taking Space for the first time at MAM since 2018 is Kara Walker’s cut-paper silhouette installation Virginia’s Lynch Mob (1998).
The diverse array of artists represented in Taking Space includes: Mequitta Ahuja, Edna Andrade, Jennifer Bartlett, Nanette Carter, Lalla Essaydi, Eiko Fan, Hope Gangloff, Clarity Haynes, Barbara Kruger, Suzanne McClelland, Elizabeth Murray, Alice Neel, Betty Parsons, Jaune Quick-to- See Smith, Ana Vizcarra Rankin, Alyson Shotz, Sandy Skoglund, Mickalene Thomas, Kara Walker, Kay Walkingstick, Carrie Mae Weems, Dyani White Hawk, and Emmi Whitehorse.