On October 12, 2017 from 7-9 pm, Pen + Brush will hold an opening reception for King Woman, a group exhibition featuring 25 artists curated by Mashonda Tifrere.

This fall, Pen + Brush is collaborating with curator Mashonda Tifrere, who founded ArtLeadHER, on a group exhibition titled King Woman. This exhibit will uniquely pair underexposed female artists with their established contemporaries in an effort to support the less recognized artists within a community of like-minded women who share the ultimate goal of effecting real change in the marketplace for all women artists.

“It is through this critical pairing of recognized and less well-known women artists that I, and Pen + Brush, hope to showcase the talent, power and breadth of the work that women can create,” says Tifrere.

Prior to graduating from Christie’s Education and launching ArtLeadHER, Tifrere became a champion for women artists as a collector when she began to experience the same lack of equity within the art market as she faced in the recording industry.

Tifrere’s work, and the founding of ArtLeadHER as a platform that offers exposure and strategic access to the primary market for talented female artists, is directly in line with the mission of Pen and Brush and the re-launch of our 123 year-old organization in 2015.

“This show is not only a celebration of outstanding work by women, but also of our shared mission to provide professional female artists with a channel for acknowledgment and recognition,” explains Pen + Brush Executive Director Janice Sands.

This group exhibition will feature the work of 25 visual artists, including performance and video installations. King Woman will encompass a mix of styles from renowned street artist Swoon whose work depicts everyday men, women, and life often as religious icons, to Lola Flash whose regal portrait series SALT, captures woman who are 70 in an unexpected light, to the extreme hyper-realism of Carole A. Feuerman, Kit King, and Ingrid Baars, whose work is juxtaposed with a group of explosive and gestural abstract painters including Taira, Rebecca Allen, Renee Phillips, and Trixie Pitts.

The exhibit will also feature the award-winning screenwriter and director, A.V. Rockwell, creator of The Gospel, a music-driven short film that serves as a visual prelude to Alicia Keys’ sixth studio album, Here. King Woman will be the first exhibit installation of the film.