Mie Yim Milk Splash (cropped image) 2015 pastel on Martha Stewart paint chip 3 x 4 inches

BEYOND SECRETARY

Curated by Jenny Mushkin Goldman

Women have come a long way from the era of being delegated solely to roles where their primary function was to serve the man (i.e the doting secretary, obedient wife). Today more women attend college than men. Technological advances have given rise to professions reliant on traditionally female attributes of open communication and nurturing skills over typically masculine traits of brawn and bravado. Despite this, a woman earns 77 cents to every dollar a man makes and misogyny is still painfully evident in all sectors.

Despite decades of incremental progress, there is still the need to stand up against the ingrained assumption that a woman’s value is intrinsic to their sexual attractiveness and servitude to men. The subjugation of a women, however, has led to conditioning where, generally, a woman’s path towards advancement and respect is to “act like a man,” thus denying the inherent strengths of womanhood.

As a response, there has been renewed interest in ‘The Divine Feminine,’ (i.e Goddess worship) in certain philosophical and spiritual circles. Illuminating this movement can help ignite a collective awakening toward greater gender equality by paying homage to the power intrinsic of the feminine that is so often suppressed. With this hope in mind, Beyond Secretary presents artwork that touches upon the archetypes of the divine feminine: Goddess, Queen, Priestess, Warrioress, Lover, Wise Woman, exhibiting varied expressions of feminine power – to love, nurture, protect, channel, engage and advise.