Open your eyes to Women’s Work at Beecroft Art Gallery!

An all-female art exhibition at Southend’s Beecroft Art Gallery explores the contentious subject of Women's Work.

This has been devised is collaboration Essex Feminist Collective and aims to raise awareness and funds for two Southend women’s charities.

In the exhibition at the gallery at the former Southend Central Library, Victoria Avenue, Southend, SS2 6EX, artists consider what it means for women in the male-dominated art world where the legitimacy of their work is often contested.

Their artwork explores arguments about equal pay, unpaid emotional labour and cuts to women's services as well as the continued undervaluing of traditional female roles

Curated by Southend artist Ruth Jones and featuring nine local and international female artists, the Womens’s Work exhibition opens on Saturday 6th February and finishes on International Women's Day, Tuesday 8th March.

A private view of the exhibition on Wednesday 10th February from 6.30pm until 8:30pm will raise funds for SOS Rape Crisis and SOS Domestic Abuse Projects (Dove).

Entry to this event is a suggested donation of £3 or pay what you can.

Executive Councillor for Enterprise, Tourism and Economic Development , Councillor Mary Betson said: “We hope as many people as possible will come along to see this most original and thought-provoking exhibition, featuring a wide range of work from some very talented artists.”

Among the exhibits will be pieces called Performative Acts of Care by artist and exhibition curator, Ruth Jones, on Saturday 6th February from 1pm – 5pm, Saturday 13th February from 11am-1pm, Saturday 27th February from 11am – 1pm and Tuesday 8th March from 11am – 1pm.

In her investigative, ongoing series “Care Work”, Ruth Jones explores people's notions of care: what it is, what it does for people and the perceived social responsibilities to perform it.

Cinzia Cremona’s work Undercurrent provokes questions about normativity and intimacy. Social conventions dictate what is acceptable and individuals are trapped by these expectations.

As an artist, art teacher, researcher and also a mother of a young man to be, Katia Salvany realised that her role as a woman could and can make a difference, especially for the ones around her.

Amira Behbehani is a Kuwaiti self-taught artist who is involved in an international peace organisation called PEACE ONE DAY. Behbehani moved on to become a member of Abolish 153 against women’s honour killing in 2015.

Serap Isik approaches painting without plan or objective. The lines and shapes of the brushstrokes forming the narrative of the painting unveil how instinct can create the painting alone, to unveil the unknown vision within.

Kim Ralston is an Essex-based artist educator who works with mixed media. She uses stereotypically female craft skills to create multi-layered, textured installations that examine the role of motherhood and loss of identity within that role.

Performance artist Eliza Soroga is from Athens, Greece. She holds an MA in Performance Making (Goldsmiths University of London) and in Cultural Theory (National University of Athens). Her performance piece “Women in Agony” aims to create a strong visual imagery of an anonymous female crowd on a busy Saturday afternoon in Oxford circus to comment on how fashion industries make women feel the need to be unique and special but they end up looking exactly the same.

Amani Al Thuwaini is interested in topics related to women’s rights, oppression issues, male domination and traditional confinement in Kuwait society.

Stefania Woznarowycz is a creative technologist , graphic designer and artist originally from São Paulo, Brazil with a degree in Graphic Design from Central Saint Martins.

As a designer living in a world increasingly obsessed with perfection and constantly trying to sell us a fantasy of seamlessness and slickness, Woznarowycz investigates friction, imperfection and tension. She believes these elements can be powerful in revealing creative principles.

Admission to the exhibition is free, and the Beecroft Art Gallery is open Tuesdays – Saturdays from 10am - 5pm.

For more details, please visit: http://www.southendmuseums.co.uk

Published: 3rd February 2016

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