With an increasingly bright interest in the importance of women’s voices in modern culture and recent history, a look into a cross-section of contemporary women artists proves the powerful and distinctly female perspective is relevant and enlightened, whether their art is making active social statements or perhaps simply just reflecting an observed beauty from their surroundings. Something wholly unparalleled is to be gained from comingling with art made by women, as the expressed notions plumb much farther than what initially meets the eye.
Recall, a signed 1998 silkscreen by Lorna Simpson, is an exemplary work from the style that brought her to fame, with a poetic and considered pairing of image with words that leads the viewer into an almost cinematic place of contemplation and exploration.
For Shirin Neshat, a wry and deadpan brush with humor in this major work In Deference allows for some wonderfully inspiring societal criticisms to be delivered in a popular and approachable way, paving the way for messages that are simultaneously deep with reality and surprisingly lighthearted in tone. More of her stunning work can be seen in special solo exhibition ‘I Will Greet the Sun Again’ which recently opened at The Broad museum in Los Angeles.
Regina Giménez offers a compelling series of musings in her abstract works titled Sunrays. Beautiful large signed stone lithographs, these works seem both contemporary and ancient all at once, something that art on the subject of the sun is sure to hold paramount. Giménez’s touch never deviates from softness, strict though her construction is— something unique about a woman’s expertise which here shines through effortlessly.
As her entry into the intriguing 1986 Art Sounds Portfolio, which also hosts works by the likes of Marcel Duchamp, Larry Rivers and Tom Wesselmann, LA-based Japanese installation sound artist Mineko Grimmer reveals a visual analogy of aching beauty, conceptually juxtaposing perhaps a cross-section of a tree with a vinyl record.
And it seems that a portrait of a woman done by another woman produces a distinguished and also lovely view into the ongoing commentary that is touching on, amongst much more, subjects of culture, femininity, and modern life in America. Clarivel with Black Blouse and White Ribbon, a signed work by Mickalene Thomas, exudes strength and grace, and not without that modern pop sensibility that can only be seen through the eyes of a truly contemporary image maker.
Nalini Malani’s take on a long tradition of Roland Garros French Open posters seems to be glimmering with the heat and sparkle surrounding the fury and excitement of a world class tennis match, even going so far as to produce the butterflies in gold foil. This dynamic work is available as both a signed and an unsigned print.
More riveting societal commentary, with either a raw sarcastic or a flamboyant pop sensibility (or perhaps a good measure of both), can be seen in works like Budget Enterprise by New York born, LA-based artist Olga Koumoundouros or Untitled #119 by well-known scathing Hollywood critic Cindy Sherman, who acted as a pioneer creator in launching a portfolio of visuals defining that industry’s counter movement.
And to bask in some soulful and intricate appreciation of an artist’s immediate surroundings, the signed 1980 woodcut Dreamscape from little known artist Mary Mendell or the signed 1987 silkscreen Guest Room from renowned photorealistic painter Nancy Hagin are rich with both.
