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The New York Society of Women Artists (NYSWA) announces the opening of its exhibition “INvision” at the Art League of Long Island from May 6 through May 27, 2023. While NYSWA, founded in 1925, fosters creativity, innovation and advocates for the voice and vision of women artists, the Art League of Long Island enhances Long Island’s cultural life by promoting the appreciation, practice, and enjoyment of the visual arts. INvision will be hosted in its the beautiful Jeanie Tengelsen Gallery. Through INvision, the multi-generational and ethnically diverse members of NYSWA will present over 60 artworks in both 2 and 3 dimensions, in a vast array of mediums, highlighting the exploration of the individual, and the internal experience of the creative process.
INvision asks provocatively: From where does this work originate? How does the artist negotiate the uncharted territory between the control of the medium and the surrender to the process, informed and guided internally and externally, yet without a predetermined result? How does the artist break the foundational rules of training and experience to head into the uncharted waters of discovery? How does the artist manifest an inner vision to render it accessible to the viewer? As an artist confronts the control of the medium vs. the medium’s intrinsic nature, creativity becomes the catalyst. How the finished artwork develops may vary greatly by the way each artist seeks this balance between material and skill, between facilitator and creator. INvision offers insight into these questions. The viewer will witness the artist choosing to follow the free transformation of the materials and the evolution of the work on an unknown path.
ABOUT NYSWA:
The New York Society of Women Artists (NYSWA) was founded in 1925 when twenty-three painters and three sculptors banded together to formalize this group of passionate feminists and talented artists. From its inception, NYSWA was devoted to promoting avant-garde women artists by organizing exhibitions of their work and raising the status of female artists.
With New York City serving as the cultural gateway in the 1920’s, the social and political climate of America was fertile territory for women artists to unite to express their avowed role in society: to demand freedom and recognition parallel to the Women’s Suffragette Movement which had gained much ground. By uniting as a Society, NYSWA’s founding women artists gained support and increased their exhibition opportunities.
NYSWA persists in strength as it nears its centennial and reflects the voices of its inter-generational, multi-ethnic members. The organization has nearly tripled in size and limits itself by charter to 60 active members—who continue to garner acclaim as they prevail with fortitude, making art in solidarity. With the conversation shifting to gender fluidity and bodily autonomy, NYSWA continues to question female gender stereotypes as they relate to perceived societal norms for women. Through their artwork, NYSWA members embrace the many facets of their own humanity, their self- perceptions, and continue the to fight to gain parity in the art world and art market.