Narc. Magazine Online
Reliably informed
The gallery brings the first major survey of work by the hugely influential artist, feminist and author to Gateshead
Image: Judy Chicago Purple Poem for Miami, 2019 Fireworks performance, © Judy Chicago/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Photo © Donald Woodman/ARS, New York
Gateshead’s BALTIC gallery have landed quite the coup with the first major survey of work by hugely influential artist, feminist and author Judy Chicago, which is at the gallery from Saturday 16th November until Sunday 19th April.
To celebrate her 80th year and over five decades of work, the exhibition will feature pieces that span her amazing and inspiring career, from her early smoke performance ‘actions’ in the desert first shown in 1970, her multiple images of birth in The Birth Project (1980-85) to her most recent work The End: A Meditation On Death And Extinction (2013-18) which has not been previously shown outside the US.
Chicago’s work transcends boundaries and covers a range of diverse mediums, from traditional crafts such as needlework and china painting to pyrotechnics and explosives. Having dedicated her artistic life to examining and representing the role of women in history and culture, Judy Chicago has been instrumental in the feminist art movement, establishing the very first feminist art programme in the US in the 1970s. This exhibition will showcase a range of detailed drawings and watercolours which compose part of her Autobiography of a Year (1993–94) and My Accident (1986), a reflection on the human experience over the course of a year, as well as photography from her Atmospheres series (1969–1974), during which she aimed to explore feminism through land art.
A highlight will undoubtedly be the opportunity to hear Judy Chicago in conversation at the gallery on the opening night, with limited tickets available now online.
