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Greetings!
25 years ago, some posters went up on the streets of New York and all hell broke loose. The posters showed how bad things were for women artists in museums and galleries and everyone started talking about the issues. The press release from May 6, 1985 stated: "Simple facts will be spelled out; obvious conclusions can be drawn." The Guerrilla Girls were born!
Since then there have been over a hundred projects -- posters, actions, billboards, books, and stickers -- about art, art history, politics, film, social issues, pop culture and corruption in the art world. Recently, we've done gigs and workshops at hundreds of universities -- even at art museums that we've attacked. We've created public projects all over the world: at the Venice Biennale, in Mexico City, Ireland, Montreal, France, Istanbul, Athens and Shanghai. We always try to twist an issue around in some new, provocative way, using facts, humor, fake fur and outrageous visuals, with the intent of changing peoples' minds. See our work at www.guerrillagirls.com.
GGs, buckets, glue by George Lange
 | Some things have changed since we first donned our gorilla masks. For one thing, it's now a no-brainer that any history without the voices of women and people of color is incomplete. But there's still lots to do: there's a crushing glass ceiling in the world of museums, galleries and auction houses; Hollywood and the media still feed us updated versions of old claustrophobic stereotypes, served up by a mostly white male industry; pop culture assaults women from every direction with false, unattainable images of what we should be; and millions of women worldwide live without basic human rights. Can't take off those masks yet!
Don't miss the Clarification section below.
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WHAT'S NEW
On March 28, 2010, Yoko Ono gave us her Kathe Kollwitz, Yoko Ono and Frida Kahlo by Ann Terada  | 2010 Courage Award For the Arts!
Her work has always been courageous, and we thank her for considering
us courageous, too.
WHAT'S NEXT
We're
giving the commencement keynote
at the School
of the Art Institute of Chicago May 22. We'll be at Seville's Gender
International
Symposium June 7-8. We're participating in Seoul's BITT Festival May 12-15, and the 9th Korea Experimental Arts Festival
July 24-Aug 1. Come see us this fall in Sarajevo, LA, San
Diego, Minneapolis, Albany, and Marlboro, VT. And, check out where we've been lately.
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WHAT KEEPS US
AWAKE AT NIGHT
As you can see, in recent years the
Our installation thru 2/11/11 in Paris: elles@centrepompidou  | Guerrilla Girls have been busier than ever, but we've also been faced
with a dilemma: What to you do when the art world you've spent your
whole life attacking suddenly embraces you? For now, we've decided to participate in museum shows because we've always wanted to get our message out to
as large an
audience as possible. When our work appears at venerable institutions like the Venice Biennale, the Tate Modern, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, or The National Gallery in DC, we get lots of letters from people saying they were blown away by our critique of the art world. Plus, it's a thrill to criticize a museum right on its own
walls.
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CLARIFICATION
Please note: In 2001, in addition to Guerrilla Girls, some former members organized into Guerrilla Girls On Tour, a theatre collective; and Guerrilla Girls Broadband, dealing with internet and workplace issues. These groups are completely separate from Guerrilla Girls. Each has its own members, work and website. Look at their sites and you can see the difference.
However, the similarity of the names Guerrilla Girls, Guerrilla Girls On Tour and Guerrilla Girls Broadband creates confusion. Sometimes it's wrongfully assumed that Guerrilla Girls On Tour is the touring wing of the Guerrilla Girls. They are not. Sometimes Institutions mistakenly contact GGOT and GGBB for information and appearances, thinking they are contacting the Guerrilla Girls. Some of their appearances have been erroneously publicized as gigs with the Guerrilla Girls. Not true. They are not us. We are not them. We are sorry for the confusion. We think it's unfair to everyone.
To set the record straight: Many women come in and out of the group. Founding members Kathe Kollwitz and Frida Kahlo have been kicking butt as Guerrilla Girls since 1985, and are authors of everything on the website www.guerrillagirls.com. It's the only place where you can reach, talk to, and book the Guerrilla Girls.
The world needs more feminist masked avengers out there, and now there are more. Meanwhile, the Guerrilla Girls rock on! |
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Thanks so much for the thousands of emails every year. Keep 'em coming! Good luck with your work.
Love, Guerrilla Girls
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