NEW YORK, NY.- Galerie Lelong, New York announces “For it is our battle,” a group exhibition parsing methods of depicting the feminine body in the diverse practices of a multi-generational, international group of women artists. Ranging from reverence for feminine forms, criticism of societal standards, and calls for political action, the works on view present a multifaceted perspective of womanhood, inextricably tied to the enduring fight for bodily autonomy. Central to the exhibition is a rarely exhibited work by Nancy Spero, This Womb... (1985), honoring the late artist’s advocacy for the advancement of women on the centenary of her birth. Historic works by Yoko Ono, Martha Rosler, and Nancy Spero prompt a dialogue with more recent works by Petah Coyne and Kathy Grove, Tomashi Jackson, Lin Tianmiao, Nalini Malani, Erin M. Riley, and Pinaree Sanpitak.
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Commanding the main gallery space is Nancy Spero’s This Womb… (1985), a set of four vibrantly colored banners emblazoned with slogans that evoke the fight for reproductive justice: “this womb does not belong to doctors, legislators, judges, priests, the state, etc.” and “certainly childbirth is our mortality, we who are women, for it is our battle.” The former originally appeared on an apron Spero wore to a pro-choice march in 1970 while the latter is pulled from Bernardino de Sahagún’s writings on the Aztecs. This Womb… was conceived for the 1985 edition of Creative Time’s Art in the Anchorage, an annual exhibition held in the vaults at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge. Rarely exhibited in the forty years since, its return to public view comes on the one-hundred and tenth anniversary of the opening of the first birth control clinic in the U.S., and at a time of increased uncertainty for the future of contraception access across the country. Yoko Ono also directly addresses the importance of birth control in Revolution: Object in Three Parts, a 1988 bronze cast of a 1966 concept that places upon a pedestal a condom, diaphragm, and a birth control pill.
Other artists use their practice as a platform to address the—often negative—broader perception and treatment of women within society. Selections from Martha Rosler’s feminist series Body Beautiful, or Beauty Knows No Pain (c. 1966-72) center the impact of high-gloss marketing on women, appropriating images pin-up style images to critique their objectification. Instead of images, Lin Tianmiao focuses on words in Badges (2011-12), where slang terms for women in American and Chinese culture are embroidered on stark white backgrounds. In her pioneering practice, Nalini Malani directs a critical spotlight at violence against women, often blending mythological narrative structures with references to current events.
A selection of works on view present a more holistic view of the experience of existing as a woman in the world. In textile artist Erin M. Riley’s Time Bomb Triptych (2022), accumulated source images that confront the visceral, sometimes haunting, aspects of womanhood come together in a meticulously crafted tapestry. In her Womanly Bodies series, Pinaree Sanpitak focuses on the physical form, creating dimensional and sensual abstractions of the feminine body in mawata silk to merge the aesthetic with the organic. While Sanpitak focuses on abstraction to convey a universal experience, Tomashi Jackson delivers an ode to the individual accomplishments of Nina Simone, honoring her role in creating the anthemic song “To Be Young, Gifted and Black.” Similarly, Petah Coyne and Kathy Grove’s collaborative photography series, The Real Guerrillas – The Early Years, documents and honors the dedication of the original members of the Guerrilla Girls collective. Each work comprises two portraits of each woman who participated from 1985 through 2000; one photographic portrait depicts the selected member as her “alias,” masked and costumed while the second depicts the artist as herself, without a mask, in her studio surrounded by her work.
On this centenary of Nancy Spero’s birth, “For it is our battle” honors the women of her generation and those that come after, who, through their art, confront the realities of womanhood in the face of an ongoing battle for dignity and agency.
