NEW YORK, NY.- This exhibit is the first to address the more than 25 collaborative performance rituals and community based workshops produced by Mary Beth Edelson starting as early as 1969. These pioneering works in social practice were presented at The Corcoran Gallery, A.I.R. Gallery, Albright-Knox Gallery, The Malmo KonstMuseum, Sweden, and Franklin Furnace, as well as at universities in the United States and abroad. In planning and presenting these participatory programs Edelson collaborated with organizations such as A.I.R Gallery, the utopian community of New Harmony, Indiana, and artists from The Women's Building in Los Angeles. The collaborations are represented by drawings and a chronology of photo documentation as well as a study area with scriptbooks, texts by and about the artist, and other documents. Collaborative also includes two Story Gathering Boxes, works which Edelson has created since 1972 and constitute an archive of participants personal thoughts. The box titled Gender Parity asks the questions: What did you mother teach you about women? and What did your mother teach you about men?. Participants may view previous handwritten responses as well as respond to new questions posed by the artist.
Beth Edelsons work has been featured in over 90 books and is widely reviewed in the United States and abroad. Recent exhibitions include, Me. Myself. Naked., Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen, Germany, 2013; Female Power, Museum Voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem, Netherlands, 2013; 22 Others, Suzanne Geiss Company, NY, 2013, a restaging of the 1973 exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery, Washington DC; NYC 1993, New Museum, NY, 2013; Burn in Hell, Balice Hertling Gallery, Paris & NY, 2011; Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography, MoMA, NY, 2010; WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, which was curated by MoMAs Connie Butler and traveled to LA MOCA, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Vancouver Museum, and PS1, NY, 2007-09; The End, curated by Eric Shiner, The Andy Warhol Museum, 2009; Gender Battle, Centro Gallego de Arte Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 2007-2008; and Picturing the Modern Amazon, New Museum, NY, 2000. The artist has also exhibited internationally at the Malmo Konstmuseum in Sweden, where she had a retrospective entitled A Life Well Lived, 2006; Migros Museum, Zurich, 2006; Lofoten International Art Festival, Norwaym, 2004; Mumok Museum, Vienna, 2003; Shedhalle, Zurich, 2003; and the Tate, London, 2001. In addition to international recognition Edelson has founded numerous enterprises including the seminal Conference for Women in the Visual Arts (CWVA) held at the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C. in 1972 and the follow-up seminar at the Smithsonian, Washington, D.C. in 1973. She is a founder of Heresies Magazine and WAC (Womens Action Coalition). Her work is in the collections of major museums including: the Guggenheim, NY, NY; MoMA, NY, NY; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and the Walker Art Center, MN and Malmo Konstmuseum, Sweden. This is her second solo exhibition at
Accola Griefen Gallery.