11th International Open

Woman Made Gallery, Chicago
February 29 - March 27, 2008
Opening Reception: February 29, 6-9pm

Bold, provocative and sublime, the works of contemporary female artists are charting new territories and breaking established grounds. Woman Made Gallery is pleased to announce its 11th International Art Open. Each year, in celebration of Women’s History Month, Woman Made Gallery invites submissions from women artists worldwide. This year’s exhibition, juried by Barbara Koenen, will feature drawings, paintings, photographs, sculpture, and mixed-media works by 40 artists.

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Barbara Koenen earned her M.F.A. at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is an exhibiting artist, curator and writer. In 2007 she curated the group show “Consuming War” for the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago. Koenen serves as Project Director for the Cultural Planning Division at the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. Her extensive exhibition record includes the Museum of
Contemporary Art, Chicago.

Artists include: Louise Atkinson, Claudia Berns, Audrey Brown, Corinne Butler, Mo Cahill, Margot Ceddia, Sharon Davie-Barrett, Rachael Marie Demeo, Tracy Featherstone and Krista Connerly, Stephanie Fosnaugh, Rachel Gibson, Sharon Gilmore, Sara Holwerda, Beth Kamhi, Phyllis Lear, Yen-Hua Lee, BiLan Liao, Joetta Maue, Lily Mayfield, Sonia McKenna, Monika Merva, Heather Muenstermann, Althea Murphy-Price, Aria Newton, Sarah Nguyen, Mary Lou Novak, Beth Oberholtzer, Pamela Paulsrud, Bonnie Peterson, Joyce Polance, Jennifer Reis, Marybeth Rothman, Vlasta Smola, Kristina Sparks, Melissa
Steckbauer, Victoria Szilagyi, Susan Tennenbaum, Vadis Turner, Jessica Vaughn, Erin Williams, and Marjorie Woodruff.

In addition to the 11th International Open WMG is proud to present solo shows by Colorado artist Mary K. Connelly, first prize winner of the 10th International Open and Shelly Jyoti who resides in Baroda, Gujarat in India. Connelly describes her paintings in “Topophilia: New Interiors” as studies of the domestic interior where the
familiar notion of "home" is fraught with conflicting feelings of entrapment and private repose. The images are created by a distillation of perception and memory, where color and light convey a world psychologically and spiritually charged.

Shelly Jyoti is an international exhibiting artist, writer, poet and fabric and fashion designer. Her paintings in “Beyond Mithila: Exploring the Decorative” are a fantasy of heritage, patterns and confluence of traditional artforms and references of embroideries and embellishments from India.

Woman Made Gallery
685 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago, IL 60622
Website: www.womanmade.org
Gallery Hours:
Wed-Fri noon-7pm
Sat-Sun noon-4pm
Admission: Free

Woman Made Gallery is supported in part by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency; a CityArts Program II grant from the City of Chicago, Department of Cultural Affairs; the Chicago Community Foundation; the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley
Foundation; the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation; the Efroymson Fund, a CICF Fund; a major anonymous donor; and the generosity of its members and contributors.