A Strong In-Your-Face Word: Works from the Brodsky Center at PAFA

Arcadia Exhibitions is pleased to present “A Strong In-Your-Face Word: Works from the Brodsky Center at PAFA,” an exhibition featuring prints and handmade paper editions commissioned by the Brodsky Center at its printmaking and papermaking studios. Presented in the Spruance Gallery from February 6 through April 21, 2024, “A Strong In-Your-Face Word” proposes artworks that can be seen as emblematic of the continual fluidity of the priorities and strategies contributed by artists to the feminist movement from the 1960s to this day. 

Curated by Grace Harmer, “A Strong In-Your-Face Word” joins a host of exhibitions and events in Philadelphia organized to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1974 citywide exhibitions and programming entitled “FOCUS: Philadelphia Focuses on Women in the Visual Arts,” led then and now by Philadelphia artist Diane Burko and artist, curator, writer, and activist Judith K. Brodsky.

The title “A Strong In-Your-Face Word,” inspired by a 2008 essay by Martha Rampton, hints at the deeper sociopolitical and gender equity goals that the term feminism has come to represent in the second decade of the 21^st century. The artworks in this exhibition critically engage the nuances of second-wave feminism while concurrently exploring the ideological frameworks redefining the movement in the present. Recognizing the historical limitations of the term feminism in capturing diverse identities and experiences across gender, race, and cultural backgrounds, these works aim to broaden the scope of the movement embracing the need to redefine feminism since the original “FOCUS” exhibition. 

Featured artists include Emma Amos, Eleanor Antin, Nancy Azara, Zoë Charlton, Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Liz Collins, Betsy Damon, Mary Beth Edelson, Lauren Ewing, Chitra Ganesh, Sharon Hayes, Harmony Hammond, Joyce Kozloff, Yolanda López, Diane Neumaier, Farah Ossouli, Nell Painter, Faith Ringgold, Miriam Schapiro, Carolee Schneemann, Joan Semmel, Sylvia Sleigh, Joan Snyder, Nancy Spero, May Stevens, Athena Tacha, June Wayne, and Martha Wilson.

Judy Brodsky taught at Arcadia University from 1972 to 1978. On the occasion of “FOCUS,” Brodsky and the then Art Department Chair Jack Davis brought to Philadelphia the exhibition “Lee Krasner: Selections from 1946–1972,” and invited Krasner (1908–1984) to lecture on campus. In 1986, Brodsky became the founding director of the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper at Rutgers University, which was later renamed Brodsky Center in her honor. The Brodsky Center joined PAFA in 2018. Dedicated to printmaking and papermaking residencies for women and artists of color, it has pioneered institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion, and continues to foster innovative ideas and narratives.