transfeminisms Chapter II:
Radical Imaginations
15 May—29 June 2024
Preview: Tuesday 14 May, 6—8:30pm
Mimosa House presents the second chapter of transfeminisms, a major survey touring exhibition, that brings to light a multiplicity of urgent, pressing and ongoing issues faced by women, queer and trans people across the globe. The second chapter (15 May—29 June 2024) will feature works by Chiara Fumai, Martine Gutierrez, Juliana Huxtable, Jesse Jones, Josèfa Ntjam and Naomi Rincón Gallardo.
Unfolding over five chapters, transfeminisms outlines strategies of resistance through propositions of collective action, care and radical imagination, in order to generate a more equitable future. The exhibition explores the lineage of feminist art practices by facilitating dialogue between emerging and more established artists.
The title transfeminisms is deliberately provocative. The prefix “trans” implies ‘across, beyond, through, on the other side of’; while the ‘s’ in ‘feminisms’ recognises the innumerable definitions of feminism worldwide. Our intention is for transfeminisms to be understood within an inclusive and decolonial context – one that takes us across feminisms and encompasses various ‘trans’ possibilities.
The second chapter's artists re-envision canons and icons of the past through a prism of dystopian futurism, feminist, and queer empowerment. They engage with questions of religion and ritual, mythology and conspiracy, subverting conventional views. Futures here are reimagined beyond gender, race, religion, and patriarchy in an attempt to challenge collective consciousness.
Image: Martine Gutierrez, Magdalene from ANTI-ICON: APOKALYPSIS, 2021. Courtesy of the artist, Josh Lilley and Ryan Lee galleries
Curators
Christine Eyene, Daria Khan, Jennifer McCabe and Maura Reilly
Assistant curators
Sandra Lam, Keshia Turley, Jessica Wan
Global Curatorial Advisors
Camille Auer, Giulia Casalini, Natasha Ginwala, Snejana Krasteva, Natalia Sielewicz, Gabriela Rangel, Lucía Sanromán, Olia Sosnovskaya, Stefanie Hessler, and Indira Ziyabek
transfeminisms is supported by
Lubaina Himid Projects
transfeminisms exhibition circle
Marcelle Joseph
Muriel Salem
Nayrouz Tatanaki
Mimosa House is supported by
Mimosa House Patrons
About the artists:
Chiara Fumai (1978-2017, Italy)
Chiara Fumai was an Italian artist celebrated for her performative and multi-media works, characterised by psychic abilities, anti-spectacle strategies, and counterculture icons. Notable among her creations is The Moral Exhibition House, a feminist insurrection space presented at dOCUMENTA(13) (2012), and her channelling of the spirit of an Anonymous Woman at the Querini Stampalia Foundation in Venice (2013). Fumai's fictional propaganda of Valerie Solanas' S.C.U.M. Manifesto, which mirrored Silvio Berlusconi's political campaign, earned her the IX Furla Art Award (2013).
Refusing to be victimised, minoritised, or diminished as a female artist, Fumai adopted the vocabulary of threat, revolt, and boredom to challenge Western patriarchy's dominant discourses. Through her performative pieces, she evoked courageous female figures, including Annie Jones, Zalumma Agra, Ulrike Meinhof, and Eusapia Palladino, alongside male presences like Harry Houdini and Nico Fumai. Her exhibitions spanned venues worldwide, from the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York (2019) and Museion in Bolzano (2015) to Rosa Santos in Valencia (2016) and A Palazzo Gallery in Brescia (2013). Fumai's legacy continues to inspire critical discourse on gender, power, and identity in contemporary art.
Martine Gutierrez (b. 1989, California, USA)
Martine Gutierrez is an interdisciplinary artist based in New York known for her exploration of identity through performance, writing, composition, and direction. Through various media, from billboards to episodic films, music videos, and the magazine "Indigenous Woman," Gutierrez critiques advertising's commodification of identity, challenging conventional norms and advocating for a nuanced understanding of gender. Her work blurs boundaries, reflecting her multicultural upbringing and LGBTQ advocacy, offering a dynamic portrayal of the fluidity of identity.
Gutierrez's notable works include "Indigenous Woman" (2018), a glossy magazine challenging beauty ideals, her semi-autobiographical film "Martine Part I - IX" (2012 - 2016), tracing a transformative journey, and "Real Doll" (2013), "Girl Friends" (2014), and "Line Up" (2014), which explore gender and fantasy. Her solo exhibitions at venues like the Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK (2022), and the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, MO (2022), and group exhibitions worldwide, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, DC (2023), and the Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria (2021), highlight her impact on contemporary art discourse. Gutierrez earned her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, and her works are held in collections at institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Jesse Jones (b.1978, Ireland)
Jesse Jones, based in Dublin, explores the intersections of film, performance, and installation, often through collaborative efforts, to examine how historical communal culture informs contemporary social and political landscapes. Her multi-platform practice reimagines the relationship between the Law and the body, employing speculative feminism and expanded cinema to evoke magical counter-narratives to the State.
Notable projects include "In the Shadow of the State" (2016) and representing Ireland at the Venice Biennale 2017 with "Tremble Tremble." Currently the inaugural artist in residency for the King's Inn society of Ireland, Jones investigates the connections between Law, Testimony, and performance. Recent solo exhibitions span Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh; Project Arts Centre, Dublin; and ICA Singapore, with upcoming presentations at Guggenheim Bilbao and projects at Kunsthalle Gent and Rua Red's The Magdalen Project. Jones also teaches at TU Dublin School of Creative Arts, based on Sherkin Island, Cork.
Juliana Huxtable (b.1987, Texas, USA)
Juliana Huxtable is an artist based in New York City. Through a diverse range of mediums including self portraiture, text-based prints, performance, nightlife, music, writing, and social media, Huxtable delves into the intricate intersections of race, gender, queerness, and identity. Her work disrupts conventional boundaries and challenges societal norms, offering alternative narratives and perspectives.
Huxtable’s work has been showcased internationally at venues like MoMA PS1, New York (2024); White Columns Annual, White Columns, New York (2014); “Take Ecstasy with Me,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2014); Frieze Projects, London (2014); and 2015 Triennial: Surround Audience, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2015). She brings a nuanced understanding of contemporary issues to her art, inviting viewers to engage with themes of gender, sexuality, and cultural identity.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bard College and continues to explore and expand her practice in the vibrant cultural landscape of New York City.
Naomi Rincón Gallardo (b. 1979, North Carolina, USA)
Naomi Rincón Gallardo is a visual artist who resides and creates between Mexico City and Oaxaca. Grounded in decolonial-cuir perspective, her artistic practice is driven by research and manifests in critical-mythical dreamscapes that explore the construction of counter-worlds within neocolonial contexts. Drawing inspiration from theatre games, popular music, Mesoamerican cosmologies, speculative fiction, vernacular festivities and crafts, decolonial feminisms, and queer of colour critique, Rincón Gallardo’s work weaves together diverse cultural threads to reimagine narratives of resistance and empowerment.
Naomi Rincón Gallardo earned her PhD in Practice from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, refining her interdisciplinary art approach. Her work has been showcased internationally, including at venues like La Casa Encendida Madrid (2023), the Venice Biennale (2022), and the São Paulo Biennial (2021). Notable exhibitions include "A Trilogy of Caves" at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca (2020) and "May your thunder break the sky" at Kunstraum Innsbruck (2020). She has also performed at events such as Pacific Standard Time's "L.A.L.A." programme at The Broad Museum (2018) and "The Formaldehyde Trip" at SF MOMA (2017). Gallardo's art challenges norms, fostering dialogue on identity, power, and resistance.
Josèfa Ntjam (b. 1992, Metz, France)
Josèfa Ntjam is an artist, performer, and writer whose practice encompasses sculpture, photomontage, film, and sound. Drawing from internet sources, natural sciences literature, and photographic archives, Ntjam employs assemblage to deconstruct hegemonic narratives surrounding origin, identity, and race. Her work merges multiple narratives from historical events, scientific concepts, and philosophical ideas with references to African mythology, ancestral rituals, religious symbolism, and science fiction, reclaiming history and envisioning inclusive communities.
Ntjam studied in Amiens, France, and Dakar, Senegal, before graduating from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Art, Bourges, France (2015), and the École Nationale Supérieure d’Art, Paris-Cergy, France (2017).
Recent solo exhibitions include "swell of spæc(i)es" at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (2024), "Une cosmogonie des océans" at LVMH Métiers d’Art, Paris (2024), and "Futuristic Ancestry" at Fotografiska, New York (2024).
Her work has been showcased in international museums and exhibitions, including Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK, and Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, PT. She is a member of the Paris-based art & research collective Black(s) to the Future. Her work is part of numerous public and private collections, including LVMH, Paris, FR, and MAMC+, Saint-Etienne, FR.