Sex Work

New for 2017, independent curator and scholar Alison Gingeras presents Sex Work: Feminist Art & Radical Politics.

The section at Frieze London will be dedicated to women artists working at the extreme edges of feminist practice since the 1960s, and the galleries who supported them, including: Galerie Andrea Caratsch presenting Betty Tompkins; Blum and Poe presenting Penny Slinger; Richard Saltoun presenting Renate Bertlmann; Salon 94 presenting Marilyn Minter; and Hubert Winter presenting Birgit Jürgenssen.

Sex Work, Gingeras has said, will ‘pay homage to artists who transgressed sexual mores, gender norms and the tyranny of political correctness and were frequently the object of censorship in their day’ in addition to ‘highlighting the seminal role galleries have played in exhibiting the radical women artists who were not easily assimilated into mainstream narratives of feminist art.’

‘These galleries often blazed a trail for museum exhibitions’, she explains. ‘Many figures in this section - such as Renate Bertlmann, Birgit Jürgenssen, Penny Slinger and Betty Tompkins - were too transgressive to be included in anthologizing museum shows, which arguably forged a consensual canon for important feminist art. The belated reception of these pioneering women has had a profound impact on many artists working today and resonate more than ever with the new feminisms that are taking shape in response to contemporary political realities.’

Galleries Participating in Sex Work :

Air de Paris, Paris Dorothy Iannone

Baldwin Gallery, Aspen Marilyn Minter
Blum & Poe, Los Angeles Penny Slinger
The Box, Los Angeles Judith Bernstein
Galerie Andrea Caratsch, St. Moritz Betty Tompkins
Karma International, Zurich Judith Bernstein
David Lewis, New York Mary Beth Edelson
lokal_30, Warsaw Natalia LL

Regen Projects, Los Angeles Marilyn Minter
Salon 94, New York Marilyn Minter

Richard Saltoun, London Renate Bertlmann
Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna Birgit Jürgenssen

_{Renate Bertlmann, Eva im sack (‘Eva in bag’, 2010) (detail). Digital print, 80 x 80 cm. Courtesy: the artist and Richard Saltoun, London}