The BMA Presents 30 Years of Protest Posters by the Guerrilla Girls

Inspired by the exhibition, BMA hosts Election Night Party on Tuesday, November 8

BALTIMORE, MD (August 25, 2016)—The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) presents Front Room: Guerrilla Girls, a selection of 48 works by the New York-based anonymous feminist collective known for using humor to confront sexism and racism in the art world. The works are drawn from their Portfolio Compleat—a compilation of nearly 90 projects undertaken by the group between 1985 and 2012 that was acquired by the BMA in 2015. The exhibition is on view September 25, 2016 through March 12, 2017 in the Front Room Gallery of the museum’s contemporary wing.

Curated by Senior Curator of Contemporary Art Kristen Hileman, Front Room: Guerrilla Girls underscores the New York-based group’s edgy, energetic, and unconventional 30-plus year crusade to call attention to the ways in which museums, private collectors, publications, and the art market have historically marginalized women artists and artists of color. Using a combination of audacious graphics, telling statistics, and provocative humor, their pronouncements are funny, stark, and highly critical of some of their field’s most powerful institutions and individuals, making anonymity a necessary protection for the independent careers members pursue under their own names. Examples of works featured in the exhibition are Do Women Have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum? (1989 and 2012 update), There’s a tragedy on Broadway and it isn’t Electra (1999), and Museums cave in to radical feminists! (2008)

Inspired by the exhibition, the BMA will host an Election Night Party on Tuesday, November 8, 7-10 p.m. Gather at the BMA to make political posters and masks; join in-gallery conversations on the intersection of art and politics; and stay up-to-date on the election returns. The evening will also include light refreshments and cash bar from Alma Cocina Latina and a DJ. Tickets are $10 or $5 for BMA Members and students with valid I.D. Purchase tickets at the BMA Box Office in the East Lobby or artbma.org. The event is co-sponsored by Center Stage and the League of Women Voters of Baltimore City.

In keeping with the spirit of the Guerrilla Girls, the exhibition has received generous support from 14 women and one woman-owned business in Baltimore: Virginia K. Adams, Sherry Christhilf, Suzanne F. Cohen, Nancy Dorman, Nupur Parekh Flynn, Sandra Levi Gerstung, Joanne Gold, Nancy Hackerman, Patricia Joseph, Madeline E. Lacovara, Jennifer O’Hara Martin, Amy Frenkil Meadows, Rachel Rabinowitz, Clair Zamoiski Segal, and Alpha Graphics.

About the Baltimore Museum of Art

Founded in 1914, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) inspires people of all ages and backgrounds through exhibitions, programs, and collections that tell an expansive story of art—challenging long-held narratives and embracing new voices. Our outstanding collection of more than 97,000 objects spans many eras and cultures and includes the world’s largest public holding of works by Henri Matisse; one of the nation’s finest collections of prints, drawings, and photographs; and a rapidly growing number of works by contemporary artists of diverse backgrounds. The museum is also distinguished by a neoclassical building designed by American architect John Russell Pope and two beautifully landscaped gardens featuring an array of modern and contemporary sculpture. The BMA is located three miles north of the Inner Harbor, adjacent to the main campus of Johns Hopkins University, and has a community branch at Lexington Market. General admission is free so that everyone can enjoy the power of art.