GAINESVILLE, FLA.- The Galleries at the Historic Thomas Center have opened a groundbreaking new exhibition RBL GRL | Revolution Doesn’t Ask Permission, which is scheduled to run through Saturday, June 27, 2020.

Curated by Anne E. Gilroy, RBL GRL | Revolution Doesn’t Ask Permission honors the 72-year battle for women’s right to vote and the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment granting it. The exhibition presents the work of 19 artists who challenge limitations, assumptions and the status quo.

Suffrage for women was not realized through polite request, but by a revolution of protest and civil disobedience. The suffragettes were demanding, disruptive, law-breaking rebels. They sacrificed and suffered. They were arrested, force-fed and beaten. Yet, it was their persistence and courage that pushed rights for women forward.

Likewise, the artists of RBL GRL break ground, break rules, ask questions and defy the gravity of certitude. The title RBL GRL is an ode to the 1993 tune, “Rebel Girl,” by Bikini Kill, one of the punk rock bands of the “riot grrrl” movement that “kick down norms to make space for new ideas.” [NPR music critic, Ann Powers]

Featured artists in the exhibition are:
Carrie Ann Baade, Dessarae Bassil, Jillian Marie Browning, Angela DeCarlis, Lorelei Esser, Karen Glaser, Valerie Goodwin, Lisa Iglesias, Kylee Jo, GV Kelley, Ellen Knudson, Ye Ma, Emily Martin, Nico Mazza, Julia Morrisroe, Sandra Ramos, Marina Sachs, Ashley Taylor and Madeleine Wagner.