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On Tuesday, September 10th, from 5 - 8 pm at their 800 Broad Street location, Project For Empty Space will present Feminist FUTURES fellowship curator Alyssa Alexander’s first exhibition for PES titled On Woman Hating, featuring a series of works by six woman-identifying artists. The exhibition will run from the 10th of September through December 20th.
Awarded at the 2024 Badass Art Woman Awards, the Feminist FUTURES Fellowship is an annual award in its inaugural year for femme-identified and non-binary artists who are interested in intersectionality and contemporary feminist discourse. This new fellowship emerged from the feminist incubator, a program established in 2017 to address the pressing need for community. It serves as a platform for productive and critical intersectional dialogue, fostering catharsis, camaraderie, and education within the artistic community. It has manifested through exhibitions, a residency, and various events.
Guided by eco-feminist politics, On Woman Hating looks at the intersections of race, gender, climate change, reproductive rights, and capitalism to negotiate a path toward centering the divine feminine in our individual and collective activism.
The exhibition gathers artists Destinie Adélekun, Ania Freer, Misha Japanwala, Utē Petite, Adrienne Tarver, and V Walton, who address various mythological femmes, cultural and religious icons, issues of sexual and physical abuse, body autonomy, and the inextricable link between femininity and the natural world in their work. It considers the contemporary consequences of societal shifts, including a departure from goddess culture – a shift to a monotheistic patriarchal faith-based system – the development of “modern science and the initial conception of “mankind.”
“I am deeply grateful to PES for giving me the opportunity to explore a subject that is both vast and incredibly timely. Much has been written about the tools used to tame, control, or harm women and how they correlate to the decimation of non-human species and our ongoing climate crisis, so I’m excited to bring these artists’ voices into the conversation in the context of this exhibition,” said Alyssa Alexander when speaking about the importance of her fellowship and the lasting impact she wants to make for women.
“It is fitting that we inaugurate our new space with an exhibition by our first feminist curatorial fellow, Alyssa Alexander. The Feminist FUTURES Fellowship was created to amplify the voices of curators who have a lens on intersectional feminist perspectives. Launching with ‘On Woman Hating’ reaffirms PES' commitment to providing a safe space for creative practitioners to experiment and play. We are thrilled to begin this journey with Alyssa, whose show not only aligns with our mission but also sets a high bar for this program,” said Rebecca Pauline Jampol and Jasmine Wahi on Alexander’s exhibition.
Above Image: Destinie Adélakun, “Daughters of the Diaspora: In the sea breeze, you’ll find her calm, And in the cyclone, her terror stark. Oya’s machete, with rage, can cut through a million, Yet her warmth brings peace to the cemetery she governs.” (Detail) 2024
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About Alyssa Alexander
Alyssa Alexander is an independent curator and arts administrator based in Brooklyn, NY. With a background in journalism and critical writing, she is currently building a curatorial practice and pursuing more in-depth cultural and art-historical research that centers artists of African descent. She is dedicated to working with emerging artists and institutions to cultivate a more accessible and equitable creative economy. Most recently, she was awarded the Inaugural Feminist Futures Curatorial Fellowship from Project For Empty Space.
About Feminist FUTURES Fellowship
This comprehensive fellowship program is designed to amplify the voices of emerging curators dedicated to feminist perspectives in the contemporary art landscape but also to provide a crucial safe space for creative practitioners of all gender identities who are interested in Intersectional Feminist thought. It serves as a platform for productive and critical intersectional dialogue, fostering catharsis, camaraderie, and education within the artistic community.
While the Feminist FUTURES Fellowship, which was previously known as the Feminist Incubator, remains artist-centric, it embraces the idea of multicentricity and room for new thought and experimentation within the intersectional framework. Because intersectional feminism is an ever-evolving practice, so should the architecture of a feminist-oriented program. In this recalibrated context, the FI will create space for new curatorial visions and new artistic practices.
*Project for Empty Space considers ‘feminism’ to be an ever-evolving framework. At this moment, we consider the works of a variety of feminist communities across the Global South and/or Intersectional practices. Feminism is not bound by gender; rather, it is a practice of movement toward equity across communities and identities.
