Curated by Claudia Schmuckli

Judy Chicago can always be counted on to set off sparks, whether by enrolling in auto-body school in order to paint female reproductive organs on cars; founding the first explicitly feminist art-school programs in the US; spearheading The Dinner Party, an ambitious multimedia project seating women at the table of world history; protesting male social dominance via a surname change in an ad for this publication; or staging performances with actual fireworks. The artist’s first retrospective will present 150 paintings, drawings, ceramic sculptures, prints, and performance pieces, including such important early efforts as the sick ride accessory Birth Hood, 1965/2011, and Rainbow Pickett, 1966, a subtly perverse entry in the canon of Minimalism. The show was initially scheduled to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of women’s suffrage in the US, but pay no heed to the postponement: Chicago’s vision and its contribution to history is evergreen.

— Paige K. Bradley