Activist art group Guerrilla Girls to speak at Harn museum

Feminist activist artists called the Guerrilla Girls combat and expose inequality in politics, art and pop culture through their artwork — all while wearing gorilla masks. Tonight, the Guerrilla Girls will bring their performance to the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art where a member of the group, who goes by the name Frida Kahlo, will give a lecture.

The Harn event, which will run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., is only open to students and faculty within the UF School of Art + Art History, but the talk will be live-streamed to the Harn’s classroom spaces which will be open to the public.

“Women and artists of color have been in art school for a long time, and so we questioned why they weren’t getting the same opportunities as white men,” Kahlo said.

Every member of the group goes by the pseudonym of a previously deceased female artist, showcasing that, like the masks they wear, everything the group does is done for a reason — to represent anonymity, but also to allow the artists to focus on the subject they are presenting.

Frida Kahlo, a founding member of the Guerrilla Girls, said she chose the name of the influential Mexican painter because, at the time, Kahlo wasn’t very well-known in the U.S. She wanted to preserve Kahlo’s memory and bring attention to her work.

“As women, we’re often underrepresented and even when we do have accomplishments, often times they’re overlooked or written out of history,” Kahlo said. “It’s so important that we get credit, that we have role models, that we continue fighting and that our voices are heard.”

Through their art, the group has been known to call out the oppression of marginalized groups within the art world. Their most well-known piece specifically addresses the drastic lack of women artists exhibited, yet abundance of female nudity. Displayed on a neon yellow poster, a naked woman wearing a gorilla mask is provocatively posed, asking viewers the question: “Do women have to get naked to get into the Met. Museum?”

Jason Wilkotz, a UF art and political science junior and Harn volunteer, said it was this piece that stood out to him the most and confirmed his interest to go to the exhibit.

“I love art history, and I study art history, so I’m really familiar with the serious gender inequality that has existed within the history of art,” Wilkotz said. “What Guerrilla Girls do, which is pretty exciting, is that they’re bringing to attention that not only is there gender inequality in the history of art, but that there’s even current gender inequality in the art world, and recognizing that contemporary female artists should be recognized.”

It was this inequality that inspired the the Guerrilla Girls movement to forge in spring 1985 in New York City, when the group of seven women artists realized the art displayed in galleries and museums lacked variety.

“If we want the art world and culture to properly reflect who we are as a population, there has to be diversity, otherwise we’re just listening to one part of the story,” said Kahlo, who stresses that intersectional feminism is a central part of their movement.

Sydney Martin, a UF art junior specializing in drawing, said it was the group’s ability to call out oppression, sexism and racism within the industry that stood out to her.

“They’re not afraid to speak their minds, and I think the fact that they wear the masks doesn’t mean they’re hiding,” Martin said. “They’re focusing on the message rather than the individual, because it’s not about the individual, it’s about women together and women artists as a whole.”

After the election of President Donald Trump, Martin said she hoped the Guerrilla Girls’ message of revolution and resistance could help motivate people to do something productive.

“We’re in a very turbulent time, and I think there is a lot to be done right now, it can seem hard at times to just get up and start doing something because a lot of the problems seem so large,” Martin said. “I think hearing people like the Guerrilla Girls’ talk would give a lot of people motivation to actually do something about everything they’re feeling.”

While Kahlo said she couldn’t give away too many details, she assured that their performance will include new satirical pieces featuring the recent decisions of the Trump administration.

Although the election of Trump was a huge setback in terms of progression, it won’t stop the group from fighting, Kahlo said.

“We really thought that diversity was something that our culture and government would recognize, and so what’s coming out of Washington is a huge backward step,” Kahlo said. “It’s initially depressing, but it just means that we need to figure out new ways of confronting it, to keep pushing forward and to not allow things to go backward.”

While Kahlo said she hopes students leave the event with the drive to resist and to get more involved in political activism, she also said the Guerrilla Girls are not looking for any new members, but instead urges people to start their own unique movements.

“The world needs more than one feminist organization, because isn’t it scarier to have a lot of them?” Kahlo said. “Think of some really unusual, unforgettable way to get your point across, to communicate with people, and keep in mind that our approach has always been to not preach to the converted, but to transform people’s thinking.”