Happy International Women’s Day!
Why March 8? On this day in 1908, women workers marched through New York City to protest child labor, demand better working conditions, and fight for their political rights.
Since then, a lot has changed—and a lot has stayed the same.
Today, we’re honored to open two unforgettable feminist photography exhibitions:
In the Now: Gender and Nation in Europe, Selections from the Sir Mark Fehrs Haukohl Photography Collection and Nona Faustine: White Shoes.
Though very different, these incredible shows both boldly interrogate power. They challenge notions of gender, home, and the stories we tell ourselves. (Plus, both are free with Museum admission.)
Come see them for yourself, and look through the lenses of trailblazing women artists.
In the Now: Gender and Nation in Europe, Selections from the Sir Mark Fehrs Haukohl Photography Collection
→ March 8–July 7, 2024
In the Now unites nearly 50 artists who are resisting traditional ideas of gender and nationality, as well as of photography itself. The first museum survey of photography-based works by women artists born or based in Europe, this exhibition explores the continent’s legacies of nationalism and patriarchal power structures—which continue to shape everyday life, particularly for women.
The exhibition highlights the expansive nature of the Sir Mark Fehrs Haukohl Photography Collection. Made entirely after the year 2000, more than 70 artworks offer a window into the first decades of the twenty-first century. Together the works defy outdated definitions of a woman, an artist, a nation, and a photograph.
Nona Faustine: White Shoes
→ March 8–July 7, 2024
“What does a Black person look like today in those places where Africans were once sold, a century and a half ago?” asks artist Nona Faustine.
Using her own body, she interrogates this question in her photographic series White Shoes. Forty-two self-portraits show the artist standing in sites across New York City that are built upon legacies of enslavement. On her feet are a pair of sensible white pumps, which speak to the oppressions of colonialism and assimilation imposed on Black and Indigenous peoples locally, nationally, and globally. Otherwise nude, partially covered, or holding props, Faustine is at once vulnerable and commanding, standing in solidarity with ancestors whose bodies and memory form an archive in the land beneath her shoes.
This is Faustine’s first solo museum exhibition and the first complete installation of her consequential series.
Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11238
From top: Silvia Rosi. Self-Portrait as My Father, from the series Encounter, 2019. Pigmented inkjet print. The Sir Mark Fehrs Haukohl Collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Brooklyn Museum, purchased with funds provided by the Ralph M. Parsons Fund, 2022.50.1. © Silvia Rosi. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum); Nona Faustine. Walk to Freedom Frederick Douglass, Church Street & Lispenard Street, NYC, 2016. Pigment print. Courtesy of the artist and Higher Pictures. © Nona Faustine.
In the Now: Gender and Nation in Europe, Selections from the Sir Mark Fehrs Haukohl Photography Collection is organized by the Brooklyn Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The exhibition is curated by Drew Sawyer, former Phillip and Edith Leonian Curator of Photography, Brooklyn Museum; Britt Savelsen, Curator and Head, Wallis Annenberg Photography Department and Prints and Drawings Department; and Eve Schillo, Associate Curator, Wallis Annenberg Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The Brooklyn Museum presentation is organized by Carmen Hermo, Associate Curator, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, with Imani Williford, Curatorial Assistant, Photography, Fashion, and Material Culture, Brooklyn Museum.
Nona Faustine: White Shoes is organized by Catherine Morris, Sackler Senior Curator, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, with Carla Forbes, Curatorial Assistant, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum.
Generous support is provided by
