In 1980, artist Ana Mendieta curated Dialectics of Isolation: An Exhibition of Third World Women Art

In 1980, artist Ana Mendieta curated Dialectics of Isolation: An Exhibition of Third World Women Artists of the United States at New York’s A.I.R. Gallery. Featuring eight women artists of the Third World—Judith Baca, Beverly Buchanan, Janet Henry, Senga Nengudi, Lydia Okumura, Howardena Pindell, Selena Whitefeather, and Zarina—the exhibition was conceived as a conversation between the artists and the primarily white, middle-class female members of the gallery. As a space for truth-seeking through critical dialogue, the show stressed the need to confront the dominant culture with the existence and value of nonwhite experience, in and out of the art world. A.I.R. Gallery, the first all-women artists’ cooperative gallery in the United States, was founded in 1972 by second-wave feminist artists who, like other groups including “Where We At” Black Women Artists, believed that female-only spaces were necessary to build a culture of support. While the core membership of A.I.R. lacked racial and economic diversity, limiting their ability to be truly representative, the Cuban American Mendieta became an active member in 1979. She withdrew in 1982, however, concluding that the mainstream Feminist Movement had again “failed to remember” its nonwhite counterparts and their struggle with issues of race, gender, and class.Installation view of Ana Mendieta (American, born Cuba, 1948–1985) Untitled (Facial Cosmetic Variations), 1972. Chromogenic prints. Courtesy of the Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC and Galerie Lelong, New York. -- source link

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