Beyond its ornately framed windows, the unambiguous walls of The Woman Made Gallery ( WMG ) in Chicago's West Loop are not simply stations upon which to display two floors worth of impassioned expression by female-identified artists.
Even when bare, they carry a story of audacious resiliency first given life in 1992 when, faced with the same roadblocks thrown up by galleries unwilling to showcase women's work, Northeastern University students Kelly Hensen and Beate Minkovski turned a Ravenswood Manor storefront into an off-campus arts-studio and venue for their Senior show.
There were many watershed moments for WMG in the 24 years which followed. In multiple locations before the move to its current address at 685 N. Milwaukee, the gallery amassed a legacy of over 7,500 artists from countries spanning the globe, almost 400 exhibitions, professional development, educational programming and as a launching pad for numerous careers—all a defiant exposition on canvas of WMG's mission to serve, educate and enrich the community by cultivating and promoting the diverse contributions of women in the arts.
March 11, 2016, heralds another WMG landmark fittingly illustrated in resilience and an insurgency against convention when it opens an exhibit of 15 painstakingly restored pieces by Lili Elbe ( born Einar Magnus Andreas Wegener ).
The subject of two books and a 2015 Tom Hooper film, Elbe's discovery of her authentic self began when the female model her wife was going to use as a subject didn't arrive and Elbe stood in for her.
In the international best-seller The Danish Girl, from which Hooper's film is entitled, author David Ebershoff imagined the moment when, wearing "a dress loose everywhere except in the sleeves," Elbe "felt warm and submerged as is dipping into a summer sea. The fox was chasing the mouse and there was a distant voice in [her] head: the soft cry of a scared little girl."
The story of that scared little girl who sought womanhood not merely through expression but the uncharted medicine of the time is one drawn from as much courage as the feelings, obstructions and tragedy all too familiar to the transgender and gender nonconforming communities.
When Elbe's life was cut short in 1931 after an unsuccessful attempt to transplant a uterus so that she could realize her dream of becoming a mother, she left a wealth of architectural, landscape and interior pieces seen through the eyes of an artist who once told an elderly visitor to a gallery showing her work as "most decidedly she."
The collection of Elbe's work dating from 1904 through 1929 has rarely been seen. That will change with the solo exhibition WMG has entitled Entirely Myself.
It will run concurrently with One In Herself, which, according to a WMG press release, features artists "in a multimedia group exhibition that grapple with the tensions between the body/soul, intimacy/autonomy, and personal empowerment/objectification."
Together, they form the nucleus of WMG's goal to "explore the complexities of gender, sexuality, personhood, and identity, while simultaneously challenging repressive notions of womanhood and femininity."
That exploration began in December 2014, when Minkovski retired as executive director and an exhaustive search was launched for a replacement possessed of both the 24/7 energy with which Minkovski built a Chicago institution and the equally inexhaustible vision that made it unique in the world.
Discovery had always teemed within WMG's framework. Thus its board of directors did not have to look very far. Only two years out of college, Sydney Stoudmire joined the gallery in 2013 as a part-time assistant. At the time she had been engaged in independent, curatorial work representing marginalized populations in the art world such as those, like her, who are artists of color.
"I was already invested in the mission of Woman Made when I came across the job description," Stoudmire told Windy City Times. "It resonated with my personal and professional mission."
Within six months of her arrival, Stoudmire was promoted to gallery coordinator. When Minkovski retired, Stoudmire was tasked with sifting through the resumes and applications WMG received.
By the time she assumed the role, Stoudmire was already formulating ideas for the next phase in WMG's ongoing development.
"We've always been rooted in the community and our exhibitions are conceived through a democratic process and open calls to make sure that the space is constantly evolving and as an entry for artists who haven't shown their work before," she said. "I wanted to make sure to continue to make Woman Made accessible. That means we do more public programs beyond an exhibit's opening reception. We also have conversations around the exhibitions themselves—symposia, artist talks and panel conversations that take the theme of the show and create discourse around it."
Stoudmire is also reaching out to community partners ranging from informal collectives to larger institutions that work with social justice issues.
However, Stoudmire also faced significant challenges in nurturing that vision. The Illinois budget cuts hit WMG hard. Loss of grant income bled what was already a shoestring operation. The various community partnerships the gallery has forged have provided some relief. Online crowdfunding has proven to be a similar, invaluable tool. Yet, Stoudmire also added that WMG needed to take bigger risks in order to garner the attention of new donors.
In December 2015, one such risk presented itself.
"I received an email from a consultant with a client who owned a collection of works by Lili," Stoudmire recalled. "He wanted to sell the work after the opportunity to exhibit it first. He thought it was important to show the work in a space that was devoted to celebrating women artists. In October we collaborated with an organization called Open TV which works with trans, feminine spectrum artists who are marginalized in Hollywood. WMG has broadended its mission. We are going beyond female artists to recognize that there is a whole spectrum of femininity that hasn't been represented."
The release of Hooper's film generated a resurgence of interest in Elbe's life and work. Meanwhile, WMG was developing the idea for One in Herself in order to "parse out the stereotypes associated with womanhood, femininity and identity," Stoudmire said. "So even though we are not framing Lili's work as a trans-woman exhibition, we were already planning conversations around it."
Both exhibits run until April 28. An opening-night reception on Friday, March 11, will take place at WMG at 6-8 p.m.
The conversations they will generate form the basis of a full-day's symposium WMG is hosting in April entitled One in Theirself—an acknowledgement of the language and politics that are constantly evolving around identity.
It is as unexplored territory for WMG as it was for Elbe when she sought to demolish the barriers between gender and sexuality that, at the turn of the 20th century, were as unequivocal as they were colossal.
Elbe's works will be presented in their original gold-gilded frames. "They are as equally stunning as the work itself," Stoudmire said. "But they needed restoration and the collector is taking care of that."
All of the pieces will be available for purchase in the $1,200 to $3,500 range, excluding the cost of the frames.
WMG is also exploring the idea of hosting screenings of Hooper's film, which was released on Blu-ray and DVD March 1. However, Stoudmire is sensitive to the controversy surrounding it—in particular the use of cisgender male actor Eddie Redmayne in the lead role.
"I have heard some critique from the LGBT community that the film wasn't an accurate portrayal of Lili's life," Stoudmire said. "I got some advice from a trans friend, which was to 'get your apologies ready.' There will be people who are not going to be happy with the decision but I see everything as a conversation starter. The way gender identity plays out in the public eye and the media is often not the reality of what is actually happening. So it adds another layer programmatically to the discussions we want to have. We are very aware of the room for error and we are open to being corrected. We think it is important for it to happen."
For more information about the exhibit and WMG, visit womanmade.org .
