C1760’s sweeping group exhibition traverses medium, featuring the work of Judy Chicago, Jeanne Silverthorne, Najla El Zein, and many more
Tomorrow, Femme F(r)iction—C1760’s sweeping group exhibition, uniting the work of 50 female artists practicing over the last century—opens at the Upper East Side’s historic Academy Mansion. From painting to sculpture to design to drawing, the show traverses not only medium, but also identity-based thematics: the philosophical and the spiritual, the natural world and the cosmos, its artists’ relationship to humanity, and to one another as creatives.
Says Victoria Golembiovskaya—C1760’s founder and owner—of her curation process and organization at large: “I manifested the vision of a platform beyond the classic gallery model, emphasizing programming across periods. Femme F(r)iction reflects the eclectic mix of big names, mid-career, under-recognized, and emerging female artists in dialogue with each other.” The pioneering work of Cindy Sherman and Judy Chicago, for instance, gains new meaning in the presence of design pieces by Egg Collective and Najla El Zein, paintings by Sophia-Yemisi Adeyemo and Daisy Dodd-Noble, rubber sculpture by Jeanne Silverthorne, and textile hangings by Isabelle D.
Words Lingering, Johanna Bath.
As a whole, Femme F(r)iction is cross-generational and global, reflecting the evolution of an artistic tradition—acknowledging the context of gender, and then looking beyond it. “One of our main focuses in acquiring, sourcing, and dealing lies in modern and contemporary masters,” Golembiovskaya goes on, “though always pushing the definitions and looking for connections across periods and fields.”
The show functions as a sort of “immersive collage,” in the words of managing director Michael Hardy. Its non-traditional staging lends itself to that effect, forgoing the white walls of the gallery space in favor of something warmer, and more connected to the temporal breadth of the work on view. What emerges is a full-fledged multidisciplinary exhibition, paying equal mind to the women of art history, and to their future impact.
Left: Poppy Juice, Jeanne Silverthorne, 2017. Right: Aphasia Vectors, Keelin Montzingo, 2021.
Femme F(r)iction will be on view to the public from May 11 through May 19 at the Academy Mansion in New York City.
