Displaying the contributions of women artists in the “She Laughs Back: Feminist Wit in 1970s Bay Area Art” welcomes guests for the first time at the University Library Gallery at Sacramento State.
Running from Feb. 6 through April 13, the exhibit includes 95 pieces of art from different mediums featuring the same message throughout the artwork.
“There’s a strategy for political, subversive humor,” Elaine O’Brien, professor of modern and contemporary art at Sac State and curator of the exhibit said.
O’Brien said the title “She Laughs Back” refers to the artists laughing at the ideas of the time period.
“They’re laughing back at the idea that women can’t be artists, can’t get an art gallery; can’t do this, can’t do that; when all the while, they’re perfectly able,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien said that everything from the text on the walls, to the mood created by the lighting, to even the yellow paint called “melted butter” for the walls, is intentional.
“Art is a visual language. It needs to be presented in sequences and positions and lighting to convey what it has to say. They are placed specifically,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien said that she wanted the show to look young because the artists were all emerging and in their 20s when they created their art.
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The exhibit displays 20 artists from across the Bay Area including Lorraine García-Nakata, Kathy Goodell and M. Louise Stanley.
For artists like Kathy Goodell, the exhibit took her back to the past.
“This was the first time I had to remake a piece that I made when I was a student. So I had to throw myself back into that time,” Goodell said. “I had to remake ‘Stretching the Truth’ because the original ‘Stretching the Truth’ disintegrated because it was made out of latex.”
For Goodell, having her art displayed at Sac State is interesting because it takes her back to things she hasn’t visited in a long time, having attended Sac State when she was younger.
“It takes me way back to things I haven’t been in contact with for a long time. I went to school here for a semester or two,” Goodell said.
Suzanne Adan, an artist at the exhibit said it is “amazing to be with all these wonderful women artists” and that one of the threads connecting the pieces of all the works “is the humor” and “the satire.”
“It’s really interesting to see the works that they’ve created,” Kadence Armstrong, a third-year photography student said.
Sac State students attending the panel for the gallery were able to gain deeper knowledge of the art exhibit’s purpose and powerful meaning.
“I really liked ‘Stretching the Truth’ by Kathy Goodell. I think it’s really interesting, the play on words through the panel,” Amanda Forbes, a third-year art history major said. “I got to understand what her thoughts were behind it and the process of creating the entire piece.”
The “She Laughs Back” gallery represents a unique insight into how female Bay Area artists wanted to rebel against what was expected from women in art during this time.
