Featuring rarely-shown works by the ground-breaking, feminist-activist artists collective, the Guerrilla Girls, Fairfield University’s Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery presents its newest exhibition, “Not Ready to Make Nice: Guerrilla Girls in the Artworld and Beyond,” on view from Thursday, September 4, 2014, through Friday, November 14, 2014.

“Not Ready to Make Nice: Guerrilla Girls in the Artworld and Beyond” is a multimedia exhibition that documents and contextualizes the historical and ongoing work of the Guerrilla Girls, focusing primarily on work from the past decade. Appearing only in gorilla masks and assuming the names of dead women artists, this important activist group has kept its anonymity intact for nearly three decades, using an enigmatic approach to uncover truths about sexism and prejudice in the art world and beyond. Fighting for equality and social change, the Guerrilla Girls have remained powerfully and consistently active since their groundbreaking arrival on the art scene in 1985. Beginning with their famous poster campaigns of the 1980s and continuing with large-scale international projects, the Guerrilla Girls fearlessly took on the art establishment in ways that were both radical and revealing. Using “facts, humor, and fake fur,” they exposed the discriminatory collecting and exhibiting practices of the most famous and powerful art dealers, curators, and collectors. Expanding their work to include non-visual arts media in the 1990s, the Guerrilla Girls have more recently scrutinized the lack of women film directors, homelessness, and the environmental crisis.

“Not Ready to Make Nice: Guerrilla Girls in the Artworld and Beyond” is drawn primarily from work of the past decade and consists of rarely shown projects that trace the collective’s artistic and activist influence around the globe. In addition, a selection of iconic work from the ‘80s and ‘90s illustrates the formative development of the group’s philosophy and their conceptual approach to arts activism. Documentary material, including ephemera, behind-the-scenes photos, and secret anecdotes, reveal the Guerrilla Girls’ process and the events that drive their incisive institutional interventions. Visitors can peruse the artists’ favorite “love letters and hate mail,” and are invited to contribute their own voices to interactive installations. “Not Ready to Make Nice” was curated by Neysa Page-Lieberman and organized by Columbia College, Chicago.

Admission to the Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery is free. Hours are Tuesday-Saturday: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. (Closed Sunday and Monday). The Gallery is also open one hour prior to curtain and during intermission of Quick Center performances.