GUERRILLA GIRLS TWIN CITIES TAKEOVER Showcases More Than 50 Exhibitions, 2/29

The Guerrilla Girls Twin Cities Takeover continues with Takeover Week running February 29-March 6, 2016. More than 30 large and small Minnesota arts and cultural organizations are participating in this project to celebrate the Guerrilla Girls' 30th Anniversary as an activist art collective. As part of the Takeover and beginning in January, the partners in this historic collaboration are offering more than 50 exhibitions, discussions, performances and activities inspired by the Guerrilla Girls' body of work.

On Saturday, March 5, at 8 p.m., founding Guerrilla Girls members will stir up audiences at Hennepin Theatre Trust's State Theatre, 805 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, with one of their signature multi-media gigs. Tickets go on sale at10 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 21 and are $18 (no additional fees through this link ggtakeover.com/state using password GGTakeover). They are also available at HennepinTheatreTrust.org.

The Guerrilla Girls protect their individual identities by wearing gorilla masks in public and by adopting the names of deceased famous female figures such as Edmondia Lewis, Zubeida Agh and Frida Kahlo. During the State Theatre event, the feminist masked avengers will share how they've used facts, humor and fake fur to expose discrimination and corruption in the art world and beyond. The Guerrilla Girls offer a manifesto about why, especially today, everyone needs to become an activist. Questions are encouraged.

GUERRILLA GIRLS TWIN CITIES TAKEOVER

For a complete schedule visit: www.ggtakeover.com/events

KICKOFF EVENTS

January 2016

The Guerrilla Girls Twin Cities Takeover Kickoff includes free exhibition openings and youth-oriented events. On January 21 from 5-9 p.m., a series of receptions will be held for exhibitions at Walker ArtCenter, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and Minnesota Museum of American Art, with activities continuing throughout the Takeover. On January 22-23, Rochester ArtCenter and Instinct Gallery also host conversations and events. The Minneapolis Institute of Art will unveil a ReMix organized by the Guerrilla Girls; the Minneapolis College of Art and Design will open an exhibition of student work created in response to the Guerrilla Girls and Stepping Back, Looking Forward: Honoring Feminist Vision, a group exhibition organized by the Minnesota Chapter of the Women's Caucus for Art; the Minnesota Museum of American Art will open the exhibition Material Mythologies featuring the work of five American female artists from around the country; the Rochester Art Center will open the exhibitions Amanda Curreri: The Calmest of Us Would Be Lunatics and Charles Philippe Jean Pierre: The Feminist followed by a panel with the Guerrilla Girls; and the Walker Art Center will unveil an installation of the Guerrilla Girls' recently acquired poster archive in the exhibition Art at the Center: 75 Years of Walker Collections.

TAKEOVER WEEK

February 29-March 6, 2016

Takeover Week includes activities by additional organizing partners as well as those listed above. Highlights include the St. Catherine University Department of Art and Art History's exhibition of student posters, and the Weisman Art Museum'sMarch 2 Panel Discussion with faculty and Frida Kahlo of the Guerrilla Girls. Hosted by Hennepin Theatre Trust, six Made Here storefront displays and eight screen projections will be unveiled expressing young perspectives on social issues, art and activism in a three block area of WeDo™, the West Downtown Minneapolis Cultural District. Some 75 teens in youth groups including courageous heARTS, Juxtaposition Arts, Kulture Klub Collaborative, Little Earth, Minneapolis Institute of Art's Rated T, the Saint Paul Neighborhood Network and the Walker Art Center's Teen Art Council are creating the work.

Additional Takeover Week events include exhibitions at such Satellite Sites as Augsburg College, Artistry, Bryant Lake Bowl, Concordia Gallery, Gamut Gallery, Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Instinct Gallery, Intermedia Arts, MinneapolisCentral Library, Public Functionary, Southern Theatre, Soo Visual Arts Center, Third Place Gallery and Warm Gallery's Warm Guerillas. Please visit ggtakeover.com for more.

ABOUT THE GUERRILLA GIRLS

Formed in 1985, the Guerrilla Girls are a group of anonymous female artists who produce posters, stickers, books, printed projects, and actions that expose sexism and racism in politics, the art world, and the culture at large. The group'smembers protect their individual identities by wearing gorilla masks during public appearances, and by adopting the names of deceased famous female figures such as Edmondia Lewis, Zubeida Agha and Frida Kahlo. Because of theiranonymity, it is never clear exactly how many members comprise the group, but they have always remained a fairly small collective.

A catalyst for the group's formation was the 1984 Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA) exhibition International Survey of Painting and Sculpture, which included the work of 169 artists with less than 10% women artists and even fewer artists of color. The Guerrilla Girls dubbed themselves the "conscience of the art world," and in 1985 they began a poster campaign that targeted museums, dealers, curators, critics and artists whom they felt were responsible for theexclusion of women and artists of color from mainstream exhibitions.

Like the artists Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer, the Guerrilla Girls appropriated the visual language of advertising to convey their messages. Their designs combined bold block text with lists and statistics compiled from art magazines andmuseum reports. The Guerrilla Girls use humor to convey information, provoke discussion and show that feminists can be funny. They embrace a populist approach to art production and exchange, producing their artwork in quantity toreach a broad audience.

The Guerrilla Girls have exhibited widely across the world. In 2005 they created a large-scale installation for the Venice Biennale, and they have been the focus of two major recent exhibitions: one in Chicago in

2012, and another at the Guggenheim in Bilbao the following year. Their work is held in the collections of several institutions that they have critiqued over the years, including MoMA and the Walker Art Center, in addition to the Tate, the ArtInstitute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Getty Institute.

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