Happy Friday! Today, author Pamela Karimi presents a powerful essay on what she calls “Gestural Feminism,” focusing on women’s activism through the body and clothing in Iran.
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November 15, 2024

Today, author Pamela Karimi presents a powerful essay on what she calls “Gestural Feminism,” focusing on women’s activism through the body and clothing in Iran. While one university student recently received worldwide attention after removing her clothes on campus in protest, women have long defied Iran’s dress codes through nonverbal acts, Karimi writes.

In the news, Staff Reporter Maya Pontone takes us through the 50-year history of the Women’s Studio Workshop. What began as a small teaching collective has grown into a major nonprofit, hosting more than 1,000 artists over the years. Meanwhile, artist Matthew Chavez brings his Subway Therapy project to the Metropolitan Transit Authority, offering passersby a place to voice their opinions on sticky notes; and Scabby the Rat, a spirited symbol of organized labor, takes over a Brooklyn gallery.

Read John Yau on artist Bob Thompson’s defiant circle of Provincetown artists and Alex Jen on acclaimed artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen’s emotive retrospective. Zeba Blay offers a lovely meditation on Le'Andra LeSeur’s hypnotic art, while Nathan Gelgud draws up a comic-style review of a climate change exhibition.

Don’t forget to check out our Required Reading column and more below.

— Natalie Hadad, Reviews Editor

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The Gestural Feminism of Iranian Women

The student who stripped her clothes to protest the country’s oppressive dress code fits into an evolving movement of body-based feminist activism. | Pamela Karimi

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LATEST REVIEWS

The Quiet Sublime of Steve McQueen

The filmmaker’s return to a more coincidental, permissive mode of observation in tandem exhibitions at Dia Chelsea and Beacon is enlivening, if not always incisive. | Alex Jen

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How Bob Thompson Created an Art Communit

Fearless, prolific, and protean from the start of his career, Thompson was able to absorb influences from both contemporary and historical artists without becoming derivative. | John Yau

How to Survive a Fall

Through visceral, corporeal gestures, Le’Andra LeSeur reconfigures trauma into a psychic site from which one can still bloom into something tender and fierce. | Zeba Blay

ART IN NEW YORK

How the Women’s Studio Workshop Shakes Up the Art of Bookmaking

What started as a small feminist arts collective has grown to host hundreds of residents and publish countless books under its own imprint. | Maya Pontone

“Subway Therapy” Displays New Yorkers’ Post-Election Thoughts

Matthew Chavez launched his participatory art project in 2016, creating a space for the city’s private sentiments in the wake of Trump’s first win. | Isa Farfan

Scabby the Rat, Icon of Labor Strikes, Gets His Own NYC Show

The larger-than-life inflatable rodent is the centerpiece of artist Marlene Hausegger’s exhibition at Open Source Gallery in Brooklyn. | Maya Pontone

MORE FROM HYPERALLERGIC

Happy Pictures From the Apocalypse

Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice at the Hammer Museum is guilty of a concerning lack of urgency. | Nathan Gelgud

A View From the Easel

This week: the painting that inspired August Wilson, a lesbian magazine celebrates 50 years, sign language commodification, bodega cats in NYC, and much more. | Lakshmi Rivera Amin

Required Reading

This week: the painting that inspired August Wilson, a lesbian magazine celebrates 50 years, sign language commodification, bodega cats in NYC, and much more. | Lakshmi Rivera Amin

Opportunities in November 202

Residencies, grants, open calls, and jobs from RISD, Ucross, the University of Michigan, and more in our monthly list of opportunities for artists, writers, and art workers.

TRANSITIONS

Miren Arzalluz was named director of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

Christa Clarke was named director of curatorial strategy for the Williams College Museum of Art. Dan Byers was appointed curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, and Rachael Nelson was named Mellon Curatorial Fellow.

Bryan R. Just was appointed curator of ancient art at the Yale University Art Gallery.

Atsushi Kaga is now represented by Jessica Silverman gallery.

Eric Lefkofsky was named chair of the board of trustees at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Allison Peters Quinn was appointed executive director and chief curator of Elmhurst Art Museum.

Audrey Sands was named associate curator of photography at the Harvard Art Museums.

AWARDS & ACCOLADES

Sandra Bloodworth won the 2024 Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award from the Municipal Art Society of New York.

Joan Jonas won the 2024 Nam June Paik Prize.

Nico Williams won the 2024 Sobey Art Award.

Steph Wilson won the 2024 Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize from the National Portrait Gallery in London.

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