An All-Female Art Fair Takes on Gender Inequality With a Show at a Miami Shopping Mall

The Guerilla Girls at Abrons (2015). Photo by Andrew Hindraker. Photograph by Andrew Hinderaker

Capping a year that began with millions of women around the world marching in the name of equal pay and reproductive rights, Fair, a new satellite exhibition to Art Basel Miami Beach, launched on Thursday with a roster of female, trans, and non-gender conforming artists.

Zoe Lukov, director of exhibitions for Faena Art, and Anthony Spinello of Miami-based gallery Spinello Projects co-organized the non-selling show, which is broken into three sectors—Fair Play, Fair Trade, and Fair Market. The sectors each focus on different women’s issues, from disparities in employment and wages to exploitative advertising to representation in the art world. Appropriately enough, the exhibition takes place in the Brickell City Center shopping mall, courtesy the developers at Swire Properties who co-sponsored the show with the Miami-based Knight Foundation.

“In a lot of ways, the contemporary shopping center has replaced the public plaza,” says Lukov, pointing out that the venue opens the exhibition to a non-art viewing public. Adding to that accessibility, entry is free, the only thing for sale are t-shirts to benefit Planned Parenthood, and many of the works on view take the form of relatable media. For instance, Fair Play, the film sector of the show curated by LA-based Micol Hebron, screens selections from the Femmes’ Video Art Festival on a giant monitor across from a movie theater concession stand; artists include Alexis Bolter, Gabrielle Gorman, and others who explore themes of sexual identity. 

Learn more at artnet.com

Chris Alexakisart, womenComment