Re-Evaluations in Feminism and Contemporary Art
Volume 1
Katy Deepwell (Ed.)
This collection reflects the pressing need to re-evaluate the ongoing developments of global feminism. The seventeen texts address a diversity of global histories and legacies, examining a range of approaches, from developing ‘Anotherness’ to challenge dominant limitations of representations, to intertwining feminist actions with visual activisms – from Europe, the United States, and Latin America to China, Thailand and Ukraine. This diverse re-evaluation provides new perspectives on the significance of feminist art during the ongoing turbulent times.
Dr. Maria Photiou
Identity, Culture and Representation Research Centre
University of Derby
Katy Deepwell has the rare ability to catalyse and connect a Global feminist art community. The many contributors to "Re-Evaluations in Feminism and Contemporary Art" evidence the scope, diversity and political attunement of this field: they show us what can be done and what more there is to do.
Prof. Dr. Amy Tobin
University of Cambridge
Author of 'Women Artists Together, Art in the Age of Women’s Liberation'
The book is a wake-up call to stimulate feminist art history writing. It asserts that feminism must evolve in response to contemporary world transformations. It calls for a shift from identity-based concerns to issue-oriented approaches.
Katy Deepwell, the editor and a renowned feminist art historian, has long supported women writers and artists from different parts of the world. This is what gives her credibility and validates her manifesto.
All the conference lectures incorporated into the volume relate to the call and show how the principles are put into practice. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in 21st century feminist art history.
Dr. Edit András
Senior Research Member
ELTE, RCH, Institute of Art History, Budapest.
Winner of the Igor Zabel Prize for Culture and Theory 2024
It could be said all new research contains a “re-evaluation” of past work but these two volumes attempt a re-evaluation of feminist research in contemporary art as it has developed over the last 50 years in relation to different local/global dynamics and/or about certain artists, artworks or exhibitions. Feminism(s) aim was to interrogate existing histories and provide significant corrections to what constitutes “history”. The two volumes explore some of the ways feminism(s)’ challenges have changed museums’ curatorial practices, critical writing and art history and how feminism itself has been transformed over time and its presence in many locations. Feminism’s absence from the stories told today about the recent past and present of contemporary art represents a starting point for these essays to explore the different strategies that have been attempted in cultural and political terms and to offer fresh assessments. Their re-evaluation of artists, artworks and exhibitions goes beyond questions of reputation or recognition, to embrace questions about identifying issues in feminist research, engaging in collective work and re-examining the personal in relation to politics/aesthetics. These volumes include different voices and perspectives on feminism and contemporary art from many parts of the world by academics, critics, artists, curators and researchers.
Volume 1 has three sections that each address local and transnational issues in interpretations of feminism and amongst exhibiting artists through considering local/global dynamics and/or national frameworks (section 1); feminist cultural politics within exhibitions and writing exhibition histories (section 2) and within histories of conflicts in different local/national situations (section 3). The writers come from Macedonia, UK, Iran, USA, China, Poland, Austria, The Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Latin America and Latvia – and their work engages work undertaken in Japan, Thailand, France, Vietnam, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.
Katy Deepwell is an art critic based in London. She was a Global Dis:Connect Fellow, Kate Hamburger Kolleg, Munich (Oct 2025-March 2026) and Professor of Contemporary Art, Theory and Criticism at Middlesex University (2013-Feb 2025). She is the founder and editor of KT press (started 1998 - present) and 'n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal' (1998-2017). Recent books include: 'Conversations on Art, Artworks and Feminism' (KT press, 2025); (ed) 'De-/Anti-/Post-colonial Feminisms in Contemporary Art and Textile Craft' (KT press, 2023); (ed) '50 Feminist Art Manifestos' (KT press, 2022), (ed) 'Feminist Art Activisms and Artivisms' (Valiz, 2020) and with Agata Jakubowska (co-editor) 'All Women Spaces in Europe in the Long 1970s' (Liverpool University Press, 2018).
See also
Bibliographic Information
Book Title
Re-Evaluations in Feminism and Contemporary Art
Book Subtitle
Volume 1
ISBN
979-8-2616-0032-9
Edition
1st
Physical size
236mm x 160mm
