April 16 through May 14, 2022
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 16, 6-9 pm
With barely a pause to catch its breath after The Future Is Brown, which paired the works of veteran Chicano and Latino artists with up-and-comers, Bermudez Projects opens the second installment of its audacious FAST FORWARD series with FAST FORWARD | The Future Is Female.
Determined to offer a glimpse of the future – one where white male artists no longer dominate the art world – the exhibit unites a diverse cadre of women artists whose artistic practices have broken new ground for their originality and mastery of their respective media.
Featuring an outstanding multigenerational roster of female artists, The Future Is Female brings together Blue Chip powerhouses like Marina Abramović and Louise Nevelson; mid-career leaders like Ann Diener, Blue McRight, Yolanda González, and Linda Vallejo; and rising stars like Ana Serrano, Leticia Maldonado, and Erynn Richardson. And, after a seven-year hiatus, the gallery is proud to present the return of one of its most popular and best-selling artists, Amanda Beckmann. (See below for the complete roster of artists.)
In paintings, large-scale drawings, photographs, installations, neon, sculpture, and collage, these women tell overlapping stories of racial and cultural identity, socio-economic inequity, body politics, history and memory, the environment, nature, and sex.
Highlights of The Future is Female include Louise Nevelson’s intimate sculpture, Night Leaf from 1969; Blue McRight’s large-scale sculpture (over 9 ft), Sea Stack, made from salvaged metal bait baskets, plastic objects, nylon nets, and thread; Leticia Maldonado’s intricately sculpted neon flower bouquets; Ann Diener’s massive, heavily-layered paperwork, Evolving Terrain; Ana Serrano’s massive McMansion, No. 1; and Linda Vallejo’s installation Objects of Opulence, specifically made for Bermudez Projects.
Why focus on female artists? It’s 2022, but according to the National Endowment for the Arts, female visual artists still earn 20% less than male artists. And it’s even worse at auction, where works by female artists are rated lower by wealthy men, leading to a 50% pay gap when the gavel falls.
Says Bermudez Projects founder and curator Julian Bermudez, “We are celebrating these women and their art. They each have dynamic stories and backgrounds, and their works reflect that. It’s extremely important that we show audiences just how powerful these women are. If the major institutions won’t give them their due, we will.”
“The future of the art world is going to be non-white. If the current trajectory of support from collectors is an accurate measure – and they are the ones who will sit on museum boards or support institutions – then the entire landscape of that world will look like the rest of the US. We just want to keep the conversation going.”
FAST FORWARD is a 5-part series presenting works by key figures in Black, Latinx, Women, and Queer art history, juxtaposed with works from a select group of emerging artists.
The complete list of artists in FAST FORWARD | The Future is Female:
- Marina Abramović
- Amanda Beckmann
- Francesca Bifulco
- Ann Diener
- Camille Rose Garcia
- Yolanda González
- Kenyatta A. C. Hinkle
- Louise Nevelson
- Leticia Maldonado
- Blue McRight
- Erynn Richardson
- Leigh Salgado
- Kristine Schomaker
- Ana Serrano
- Clarissa Tossin
- Linda Vallejo