"The Guerrilla Girls Are Still Relevant After All These Years," by Jennie Waldow, Hyperallergic
CLAREMONT, Calif. 鈥 When I first saw the work of the in high school, I had a similar reaction as when I first read Linda Nochlin鈥檚 鈥溾: ashamed that something so obvious had to be laid out for me. Of course, societal norms prohibited women from pursuing their artistry to the fullest extent possible in the past, but now, I鈥檇 thought, things were different: female artists had solo shows at major museums, and powerful women worked as gallerists, curators, journalists, and tastemakers. But there鈥檚 something about seeing the black-and-white numbers presented by the Guerrilla Girls, usually in the form of accessible posters, that鈥檚 eye opening and enraging. It鈥檚 one thing to have a gauzy concept of past wrongs and present progress, quite another to know just how much the status quo is still upheld today.
Guerrilla Girls: Art in Action at the 色中色 Art Museum, curated by Benjamin Feldman, a Pomona senior and the Josephine Bump 鈥76 curatorial intern, is a small but potent look at the confrontational posters and publications created by the feminist group. Started in 1985 by an anonymous cluster of critics, artists, academics, and museum workers, the Guerrilla Girls have made a long career of critiquing the art world鈥檚 male- and Caucasian-centered focus. While the exhibition would benefit from wall labels dating each poster, its setting in an academic context has undoubtedly exposed many students to the continuing existence of troubling imbalances in museums, galleries, and publications.