The Women's Work Issue Women's Work. Pen and Brush. 2019 | Page 8

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Women’s Work:
Art & Activism in the 21st Century
Artists:
Sama Alshaibi
María Magdalena Campos-Pons
Suchitra Mattai
Miora Rajaonary
Ming Smith
Women’s Work: Art & Activism in the 21st Century takes as a point of anti-departure,
Oxford Dictionary’s definition of women’s work as: “Work traditionally and historically
undertaken by women, especially tasks of a domestic nature such as cooking,
needlework, and child rearing.” Despite the last century of groundbreaking, audacious
change and catalysts, the dictionary still hasn’t caught up to us. Neither a dismissal
nor a trivializing of this definition, the exhibition is grounded in the belief that all
women’s work, within the realm of the domestic and beyond, is valuable. However,
it acknowledges that the definition has rightly evolved, and must continue to do so,
across centuries and geographies.
Women’s Work presents five global contemporary artists-activists who continue to
expand the definition of women’s work and expose its complexity, nuance, and ever-
evolving nature. Through dynamic art practices, they generously lend their intelligence,
thoughtfulness, artistry and agency to reimagine women’s work as arts activism in the
21st century.
For Sama Alshaibi, that work is to re-visualize the historical and contemporary image of
the Middle Eastern woman. For Cuban-born María Magdalena Campos-Pons, women’s
work is rooted in the intersections of art and healing. In challenging the dismissal of
women’s handmade traditions, Suchitra Mattai works to elevate the artistry of women
of the Indian Diaspora. Through her portraiture of Malagasy women, Miora Rajaonary
usurps a history of Madagascar rarely written by women. And, for Ming Smith, to bear
witness, to document, to show up and be present in lands near and distant, is women’s
work.
Collectively, these artists remind us that women’s work is rooted in activism, justice,
healing, service, and resistance. Women’s Work is a provocation for us all—to reclaim
the term and to make space for its reinventions and future possibilities.
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Women’s Work
With Commentaries by:
Tao Leigh Goffe
Erin Haney
Isabella Ellaheh Hughes
Marisa Lerer
Miriam Romais
About the Curator:
Grace Aneiza Ali is an Assistant Professor and Provost Faculty Fellow in the
Department of Art & Public Policy, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU and a Curator and
Editor. Ali’s curatorial research practice centers on socially engaged art practices,
global contemporary art, and art of the Caribbean Diaspora, with a focus on her
homeland Guyana. She is founder and curator of Guyana Modern, an online
platform for contemporary arts and culture of Guyana and founder and editorial
director of OF NOTE Magazine — an award-winning nonprofit arts journalism
initiative reporting on the intersection of art and activism. She is a NYU Provost
Faculty Fellow, Andy Warhol Foundation Curatorial Fellow, and Fulbright Scholar.
She was named a World Economic Forum ‘Global Shaper’ and serves on the Board
of Trustees for Images and Voices of Hope, committed to using journalism to create
meaningful, positive change. Ali was born in Guyana and immigrated to the U.S.
with her family when she was fourteen years old.