Guerrilla Girls Exhibition
“The Art of Behaving Badly” by the Guerrilla Girls Comes to Grand Forks.
The Department of Art and Design at the University of North Dakota is pleased to present “The Art of Behaving Badly," an exhibition of provocative posters, videos, and other art forms created by the Guerrilla Girls that raise awareness of discriminatory practices in the visual arts. The exhibition is free and open to the public and is generously supported by the Myers Foundation.
The Artists
The Guerrilla Girls are an anonymous group of activist artists who use humor to expose bias and corruption in politics, art, film, and pop culture. They wear gorilla masks in public to maintain anonymity. The Guerrilla Girls started their activist strategies in 1985 by pasting posters on the streets of SoHo to call out discriminatory practices of museums and galleries against women artists. Since that time, the Guerrilla Girls have produced posters, books, videos, stickers, and advertising campaigns that have been seen around the world. These works are infused with humor, facts, and shocking visuals to reveal structural causes of inequity.
The Exhibition
The “Art of Behaving Badly” exhibition features artwork produced by the Guerrilla Girls from 1985-2021 that addresses gender and racial inequality in art and film, and chronicles strategies used by the Guerilla Girls to critique institutional practices in contemporary art.
The Curators - Faculty & Student Collaboration
The exhibition is curated by Nicole Derenne, Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Design, and students in her advanced art history class on feminist art. Students in Derenne’s class have been working on the exhibition as a focal point in their study of feminist art history. “The Guerrilla Girls have been a touchstone for raising awareness of the inequitable representation women of artists in museums and galleries through their witty slogans and bold graphics,” said Derenne.
“The Guerrilla Girls have been a driving force in demanding equity by exposing discrimination and corruption in the institutional art world. We are fortunate to showcase some of their most iconic works”, said Donovan Widmer, Chair of the Department of Art and Design. “I am also very pleased that our students can curate this show as part of their feminist art history class. It is a great learning experience for professional practice.”
My students and I shaped this exhibition as a showcase of some of the Guerrilla Girls’ most impactful and iconic works that call attention to the lack of artwork by women in galleries and museums.