Guerilla Girls @ Benefit For CAPA: Friday At 7 PM

Image from GuerrillaGirls.Com

I suppose a lot of "activism" can be irritating, but it's hard to dispute the points they make. In the last few years, one really has seen a dramatic increase in the profile of female artists in the art world, often showing some IMHO, very strong work.

It's pretty ironic that the glass ceiling for major dealers was probably broken earlier than in most fields by the likes of Peggy Guggenheim, Grace Borgenicht, Betty Cunningham, Holly Solomon, Paula Cooper. You really would have a hard time skipping over their role or that of the later group like Mary Boone, Annina Nosei, Andrea Rosen, Lisa Spellman of 303 Gallery, Pat Hearn , Barbara Gladstone, Gracie Mansion and many, many others.


Even so, until very, very, very recently women were really showing dramatically less in commercial galleries (even those run by women) and were a tiny part of most art museum collections. The stats, Patricia Lowry has in her well written article are both shocking and very true.

A guerrilla movement of anonymous antics, posters, billboards, perfomances and protests emerged, a lot of which were very creative and entertaining.

No one knows who's behind these masks, but it seems someone at CAPA (Creative and Performing Arts magnet school) knows one or two.

"This Frida Kahlo, and maybe one of her cohorts, will appear at 7 p.m. Friday at Pittsburgh CAPA's theater in a show designed to raise awareness of how women and people of color are progressing -- or not -- in the visual arts.

"We do a kind of enlightened slide presentation about the work we've done over the last 25 years," Frida Kahlo said last week over the phone from Las Cruces, N.M., where she and Guerrilla Girl Kathe Kollwitz (named for the German painter and sculptor) were appearing that evening at New Mexico State University. Tomorrow night, they'll be at California University of Pennsylvania, kicking off its Conference on Arts and Activism."

•Where, When: One or two of the girls will be appearing Friday, at 7 p.m. at the Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12 theater, 111 Ninth St., Downtown, for a fundraiser to support the school's visual arts department.

•Tickets: $3 for students, $7 for adults. Reserve by calling 412-338-6129 or purchase at the door. There also will be a student art show and sale in the school's lobby.