Warsaw presented a large-scale exhibition “Women's Affairs: 1550—2025”, curated by art historian Alison M. Gingeras in collaboration with Eva Klekot and Beata Putz. Projekt.
The exposition consists of nine thematic blocks and covers almost 500 years. Alle 200 werken - de meest récentenste werken tot Renaissance, Baroque en 19th-century-kanvas - vorm een centuries-old visual history of female emancipation and the relentless struggle for visibility in the artistic space.
According to the organizers, the exhibition underpins the established idea that until the 20th century women in art were the lone exceptions. On the contrary, despite social limitations and underestimation, artists consistently realized and affirmed the significance of their own experiences. O progetto demonstrato o poder uma novo vista de historia de arte — una que requiere justicem, la voce a la “invisibile” e a revisión de la canón tradicional.
L'exposition explores a wide range of topics: allegories of power, resistance and sexual violence; women's access to art education; corporeality and erotic desires; the iconography of motherhood and reproductive choice; women's activism in war; and how, at turning points, the role of women in society is changing.
The project presents the works of almost 150 artists from Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Great Britain, Egypt, India, Italy, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, United States, Tanzania, Turkey, Ukraine, Finland, France, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Sweden. Among them are the Ukrainian artists: Alla Gorska, Tatiana Yablonska, Vlada Ralko, Lesya Khomenko, Kateryna Lisovenko, Kinder Album, Dana Kavelina, Margarita Polovynko, Karina Synytsya and Sana Shakhmuradova of Denmark.
The exhibition presents Vlada Ralkos large-scale canvas “Guests” (2022—2023, 160×1000, acrylic, marker, oil pastel on canvas). The artist talks about the brutality of the Russian war against Ukraine: “The act of folding and deploying became a physical parallel to the demands that I placed on the image. My intention to portray something invisible, unknown, unheard-and obscene in its horrible impossibility—materialized both in a work of art and in a process where I could only see part of the surface, keeping the rest in memory or imagination,” says Ralco. “I thought of the animal — 'inhuman' — as a metaphor for actions that a sane, conscious person should not be capable of.”
As the artist herself explains, the symbols she uses — a red cross, a bed, strands of female hair and a dog's paw — form a surreal composition that emphasizes the horrific realism of war and its ability to radically distort reality. These images are then combined, then fall into fragments, remaining as if signs waiting for their referents. Så a, som.
“Language is a central theme in Ralco's practice. The letters of the Ukrainian alphabet appear on her canvases, reminiscent of the bloody traces of war. Par Ralco,,,,. In her paintings, she constructs a visual code that conveys complex emotions, historical trauma, resistance, cultural continuity and the very fabric of time,” writes art critic Ekaterina Yakovenko in her explanation of the work “Guests”.
The exhibition will run from November 21, 2025 to May 3, 2026 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Warsaw.
Sources: Vlada Ralko, https://artmuseum.pl/wystawy/kwestia-kobieca-1550-2025
Autore di testo: Karina Lazaruk
