SMoCA Celebrates Women Artists All Year

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art unveils its first yearlong collection show, featuring all women artists. The exhibition includes a section of rotational highlights and a gallery dedicated to rarely shown installation-based works. Unapologetic: All Women, All Year will be on view Feb. 15 – Jan. 31, 2021.

The Museum currently has approximately 1,850 artworks in its growing collection with only 3 percent on view at a given time. Although many pieces are highlighted digitally through social media and a searchable online database, SMoCA is looking forward to spotlighting its collection for longer than a usual duration.

“A recent study of art museum collections across the country revealed that women artists comprise an average of under 12 percent of total artists. Considering this revelation, SMoCA dedicates a yearlong exhibition to women artists to bring attention to this inequity, to foster awareness and to promote inclusivity,” says Jennifer McCabe, director and chief curator at SMoCA.

For the year, the Museum presents this exhibition to raise awareness to this lack of inclusion. This exhibition’s title conveys a sense of strength, signaling for systemic change within the culture, where individuals of all gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, age and ability see themselves represented within museums.

Kara Walker, “Untitled,” 1998. Lithograph; 34 1/8 x 26 ¾ inches. Gift of Joe Segura

This exhibition presents a variety of mediums and genres of art, including modernist bronze sculpture, large abstract shaped canvases, conceptual art, written word, photography, printmaking, painting, sculpture and collage. Visitors can experience an in-depth look at more than 35 works from the Museum’s collection.

The rotational section of works will create a space that presents the range of SMoCA’s collection, including new acquisitions. The first group of works will rotate in June and a final rotation will take place in October.

The installation-based gallery is on view for a shorter period, from Feb. 15 to May 31, and presents several works for the first time since they were acquired, specifically the Laurie Lundquist and Barbara Penn installations. Furthermore, some of the notable installation pieces in the exhibition were produced specifically for past exhibitions, making them one-of-a-kind works that cannot be seen elsewhere.

SMoCA began acquiring and collecting works in 2004—when it took over the care of the City’s collection—although significant works by women artists were acquired from exhibitions in recent years.

Unapologetic includes work by Dotty Attie, Melinda Bergman, Claudia Bernardi, Dominique Blain, Cristina Cardenas, Sue Chenoweth, Judy Chicago, Renee Cox, Lesley Dill, Bailey Doogan, Angela Ellsworth, Lalla Essaydi, Dorothy Fratt, Barbara Hepworth, Laura Korch, Barbara Krashes, Kyung-Lim Lee, Laurie Lundquist, Muriel Magenta, Louise Nevelson, Yoko Ono, Adria Pecora, Barbara Penn, Beverly Pepper, Monique Prieto, Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith, Kate Shepherd, Deb Sokolow, Beth Ames Swartz, Julianne Swartz, Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems, Melanie Yazzie and Asami Yoshiga.

Additionally, Unapologetic is on view during the 100th anniversary of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the United States, which brought about the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting women the right to vote.

The Museum is a presenting institution, as part of the Feminist Art Coalition, a platform for art projects informed by feminisms. Various art museums and nonprofit institutions are presenting a series of concurrent events throughout the United States.


Unapologetic: All Women, All Year

Feb. 15, 2020 – Jan. 31, 2021

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, 7374 E. Second St., Scottsdale

For more information, visit smoca.org.

About Perrine Adams

Perrine Adams is the Managing Editor of The Red Book and Lifestyle Editor for Frontdoors Magazine.
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