SOHO20 Artists, Inc., known as SOHO20 Gallery, was founded in 1973 by a group of women artists intent on achieving professional excellence in an industry where there was a gross lack of opportunities for women to succeed. SOHO20 was one of the first galleries in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

to showcase the work of an all-woman membership and most of the members joined the organization as emerging artists. These artists were provided with exhibition opportunities that they could not find elsewhere.

1973—1981

SOHO20 was founded by two artists, Joan Glueckman and Mary Ann Gillies, who modeled SOHO20 after A.I.R. Gallery (est. 1972), the first all-women cooperative art gallery in New York City. While attending a meeting of

Women Artists in Revolution Women Artists in Revolution (WAR) was a New York City-based collective of American women artists and activists that formed in 1969. They seceded from the male-dominated Art Workers' Coalition (AWC), prompted by the Whitney Museum of American Art's ...

(WAR) in late 1972, Glueckman and Gillies met

Agnes Denes Agnes Denes (Dénes Ágnes; born 1931 in Budapest) is a Hungarian-born American conceptual artist based in New York. She is known for works in a wide range of media—from poetry and philosophical writings to extremely detailed drawings, sculptu ...

, who told them about A.I.R. Gallery and encouraged them to establish another all-women cooperative exhibition venue, citing "much need for women's galleries." Marilyn Raymond, a businesswoman and friend of Glueckman's, handled the business matters while Glueckman and Gillies looked for artists to join the gallery. A cooperative structure was chosen for financial reasons. The name of the gallery was derived from its location at 99 Spring Street in the Manhattan neighborhood of

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...

(formatted entirely in uppercase as ''SOHO'') and an anticipated 20 artist-members. According to the original press release, "In keeping with the feminist ideal of women defining themselves, the criterion for membership is professional excellence without restriction of style, medium, or theme." From the outset, the artist-members reflected a diversity of styles, subjects, and mediums. In addition to Glueckman and Gillies, the original members were Elena Borstein, Barbara Coleman,

Maureen Connor Maureen Connor (born 1947) is an American artist who creates installations and videos dealing with human resources and social justice. She is known internationally for her work from the 1980s to the present, which focuses on gender and its modes ...

, Eunice Golden, Marge Helenchild, Cynthia Mailman, Marion Ranyak, Rachel Rolon de Clet, Halina Rusak, Lucy Sallick, Morgan Sanders, Rosalind Shaffer,

Sylvia Sleigh Sylvia Sleigh (8 May 1916 – 24 October 2010) was a Welsh-born naturalised American realist painter who lived and worked in New York City. She is known for her role in the feminist art movement and especially for reversing traditional g ...

, Eileen Spikol,

May Stevens May Stevens (June 9, 1924 – December 9, 2019) was an American feminist artist, political activist, educator, and writer. Early life and education May Stevens was born in Boston to working-class parents, Alice Dick Stevens and Ralph Stanley ...

, Suzanne Weisberg, and

Sharon Wybrants Sharon Wybrants (born 1943 in Miami Beach, Florida) is an American painter, performance artist, and educator. Education and early career Wybrants earned an AFA at Sullins College (1961–63), a BFA at Ohio Wesleyan University (1963–65), and ...

. In order to give every member an opportunity to exhibit, the gallery initially held two concurrent solo shows at a time. The premiere exhibitions in October 1973 featured works by Sylvia Sleigh, who exhibited ''The Turkish Bath'' (1973) and several other paintings, and Maureen Connor, who showed a group of giant "breathing flowers" that alternately inflated and deflated. After the 1973–74 exhibition season, Sleigh, Helenchild, Stevens, and Weisberg left the gallery.

Shirley Gorelick Shirley Gorelick (24 January 1924 – 19 October 2000) was an American figurative painter, printmaker, and sculptor. She "rejected both the extremes of nonobjectivity and photographic exactitude," choosing instead to use a range of sources that ...

, Kate Resek, and Susan Hoeltzel became members in 1974;

Vernita Nemec Vernita Nemec (born 1942 in Painesville, Ohio), also known by the performance name Vernita N'Cognita, is a visual and performance artist, curator, and arts activist based in New York City. She earned her BFA at Ohio University in 1964 and has resid ...

, C.R. Peck, Diane Churchill, and Noreen Bumby joined SOHO20 in 1975, following the departures of several other artists. In 1974 Sylvia Sleigh created a portrait of the group. In 1975, SOHO20 began to hold annual group exhibitions in addition to solo shows by member-artists. ''Showing Off'' opened the 1975–76 exhibition season. The art critic

John Perreault John Lucas Perreault ( New York, New York, August 26, 1937 – September 6, 2015, New York, New York) was a poet, art curator, art critic and artist. Early life Perreault was born in Manhattan and raised in Belmar and other towns in New Jersey. ...

responded positively to ''Showing Off'', saying that most group shows "are the bane of reviewers" but this was "a fine show far above the level of most such things." In the 1975–76 season, the artists of SOHO20 also arranged their first exchange exhibition with

Hera In ancient Greek religion, Hera (; grc-gre, Ἥρα, Hḗrā; grc, Ἥρη, Hḗrē, label=none in Ionic and Homeric Greek) is the goddess of marriage, women and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she ...

(est. 1974), an all-women cooperative gallery in

Wakefield, Rhode Island Wakefield is a village in the town of South Kingstown, Rhode Island, United States, and the commercial center of South Kingstown. Together with the village of Peace Dale, it is treated by the U.S. Census as a component of the census-designated ...

. The galleries exchanged group shows in an effort to expose viewers to the breadth of women's work. Invitational exhibitions, which tended to reflect a diversity similar to that of the gallery's member-artists, were likewise introduced in 1975 as a "community service" that gave viewers "a broad new look at new talent."

1982—1996

In 1982, SOHO20 moved to a new space at 469 Broome Street, another location in Soho. The gallery obtained legal, non-profit

501(c)3 A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

status in 1989, which made it possible for SOHO20 to receive funding from the

New York State Council on the Arts The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) is an arts council serving the U.S. state of New York. It was established in 1960 through a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell (1905–1996), ...

for two multi-year exhibition series, ''Ageless Perceptions'' and ''Emerging Women Artists''. Drawing attention to the work of mature women, each ''Ageless Perceptions'' exhibition highlighted several artists, including

Lil Picard Lil Picard, born Lilli Elisabeth Benedick (October 4, 1899 – May 10, 1994), was a cabaret actress, artist, journalist and critic, born in Landau, Germany, who took part in several generations of counterculture and avant-garde art in Berlin and ...

, Esther Gentle,

Dorothy Dehner Dorothy Dehner (1901–1994) was an American painter and sculptor. Early life Dorothy Dehner was born on December 23, 1901, in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father was a pharmacist and her mother was a passionate suffragette. When Dehner was ten years o ...

Sari Dienes Sari Dienes (8 October 1898 – 25 May 1992) was a Hungarian-born American artist. During a career spanning six decades she worked in a wide range of media, creating paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, ceramics, textile designs, sets and c ...

, and Jane Teller. Also added to the schedule were guest-curated exhibitions, such as ''New Visions'' (1986-87), a show of works by four artists who had no gallery affiliation, including

Lorna Simpson Lorna Simpson (born August 13, 1960) is an American photographer and multimedia artist. She came to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s with artworks such as ''Guarded Conditions'' and ''Square Deal''. Simpson is most well-known for her work in c ...

. During the 1980s, favorable reviews of artist-members were featured in ''The New York Times'' and mainstream art periodicals. A group of sublime drawings by Eve Ingalls, inspired by summers spent in the

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

wilderness, were recognized for their combination of calligraphic, east Asian art forms and an empirical sensibility. Martha Edelheit's miniature sculpted "fliers," frozen in daring acrobatic poses, were praised for their "feeling of power tempered by sensuous grace." In her paintings of fields in upstate

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, Marion Ranyak's artistic touch was described as being "delicate as a bird" while the light in her works was "always at that point of gray heat that sets everything in a landscape in motion."

Nancy Azara Nancy J. Azara (born October 13, 1939) is an American Sculpture, sculptor. Her work involves sculpture using carved, assembled and highly painted wood with gold and silver leaf and encaustic. The wood, the paint and the layers that make up the s ...

, Harriet Mishkin, and Linda Cunningham were also reviewed positively. At the time, SOHO20 also placed greater emphasis on exhibitions that exposed relevant social and political issues. In 1985, ''Private Gone Public'' attempted to reveal how artists "formulate a private view of life, environment, the world, into a comprehensible visual

symbology A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conce ...

." The exhibition included works by

Howardena Pindell Howardena Pindell (born April 14, 1943) is an American artist, curator, and educator. She is known as a painter and mixed media artist, her work explores texture, color, structures, and the process of making art; it is often political, addressing ...

Sue Coe Sue Coe (born 1951) is an English artist and illustrator working primarily in drawing, printmaking, and in the form of illustrated books and comics. Her work is in the tradition of social protest art and is highly political. Coe's work often inc ...

, Erika Rothenberg,

Nancy Spero Nancy Spero (August 24, 1926 – October 18, 2009) was an American visual artist. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Spero lived for much of her life in New York City. She married and collaborated with artist Leon Golub. As both artist and activist, Nanc ...

, and Bonnie Lucas—"six 'gut issue' artists," as described by

Grace Glueck Grace Glueck (July 24, 1926 – October 8, 2022) was an American arts journalist. She worked for ''The New York Times'' from 1951 until the early 2010s. Early life Glueck was born in New York City on July 24, 1926. Her father, Ernest, worked ...

in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. In 1989, ''South African Mail: Messages from Inside'' consisted of more than 400 works by 200 artists from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, conceived as a form of resistance against

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

. The exhibition was curated by Janet Goldner with funding from the

United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1761 was passed on 6 November 1962 in response to the racist policies of apartheid established by the South African Government. Condemnation of apartheid The resolution deemed apartheid and the polici ...

. An exhibition in 1990, curated by

Faith Ringgold Faith Ringgold (born October 8, 1930 in Harlem, New York City) is an American painter, writer, mixed media sculptor, and performance artist, best known for her narrative quilts. Early life Faith Ringgold was born the youngest of three children ...

, was made as a tribute to the civil rights workers killed in Mississippi in 1964, and featured works by six African-American women artists, including

Beverly Buchanan Beverly Buchanan (October 8, 1940 – July 4, 2015) was an African-American artist whose works include painting, sculpture, video, and land art. Buchanan is noted for her exploration of Southern vernacular architecture through her art. Earl ...

Joyce J. Scott Joyce J. Scott (born 1948) is an African-American artist, sculptor, quilter, performance artist, installation artist, print-maker, lecturer and educator. Named a MacArthur Fellow in 2016, and a Smithsonian Visionary Artist in 2019, Scott is best ...

, and

Clarissa Sligh Clarissa T. Sligh (born August 30, 1939) is an African-American book artist and photographer based in Asheville, North Carolina. At age 15, she was the lead plaintiff in a school desegregation case in Virginia. In 1988, she became a co-founder of ...

. SOHO20 was also among the many arts organizations that responded to concerns over

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

and attempts to defund the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

in 1989, which followed the widely publicized controversies around exhibitions of works by

Andres Serrano Andres Serrano (born August 15, 1950) is an American photographer and artist. His work, often considered transgressive art, includes photos of corpses and uses feces and bodily fluids. His '' Piss Christ'' (1987) is a red-tinged photograph of a ...

and

Robert Mapplethorpe Robert Michael Mapplethorpe (; November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, best known for his black-and-white photographs. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female nudes, self-p ...

. ''Blacklisted/Whitewashed/Red Handed'' (1990) addressed issues of censorship, funding restrictions, and

1st Amendment The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion, or that prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, th ...

rights through the works of SOHO20 artists and artist-interns from Washington Irving High School. Also in 1990, SOHO20 partnered with the Organization of Pan Asian American Women to present an art auction of works by Asian artists to benefit the New York Asian Women's Center (now known as Womankind), which serves the survivors of

human trafficking Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extrac ...

, sexual and

domestic violence Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...

, and later-in-life abuse. In 1994, SOHO20 hosted an invitational exhibition called ''Effect or Infect: Art and Ecology'', which addressed the state of world ecology.

1996—2015

In 1996, SOHO20 moved to a third location at 545 Broadway, and then relocated for the fourth time to 511 West 25th Street in

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

in 2001. SOHO20 also began to invite literary artists for readings, and hosted events led by the organization Artists Talk on Art between 2003 and 2010. In 2007, the gallery organized an all-media juried exhibition, ''Adam's Rib, Eve's Air in Her Hair'', which explored the many manifestations of

Eve Eve (; ; ar, حَوَّاء, Ḥawwāʾ; el, Εὕα, Heúa; la, Eva, Heva; Syriac: romanized: ) is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the ...

, including

Lilith Lilith ( ; he, Wiktionary:לילית, לִילִית, Līlīṯ) is a female figure in Mesopotamian Mythology, Mesopotamian and Jewish mythology, Judaic mythology, alternatively the first wife of Adam and supposedly the primordial she-demon. ...

, to whom the second part of the exhibition title refers. SOHO20 hosted its first all-woman video show in 2008, followed by various film screenings. In late 2009, the gallery relocated to its fifth location on West 27th Street. An exhibition of talks and dialogues called ''INTERNATIONAL FOCUS-Women in Crisis'' (2010) dealt with

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

issues such as

sex trafficking Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It has been called a form of modern slavery because of the way victims are forced into sexual acts non-consensually, in a form of sexual slavery. Perpetrators of the ...

child soldiers Children (defined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child as people under the age of 18) have been recruited for participation in military operations and campaigns throughout history and in many cultures. Children in the military, includ ...

, and

genital mutilation The terms genital modification and genital mutilation can refer to permanent or temporary changes to human sex organs. Some forms of genital alteration are performed on adults with their informed consent at their own behest, usually for aesthetic ...

; it later continued under the name ''CONVERSATIONS'', with experts speaking on a variety of topics including "Voices of Muslim Women." The series continued with "What’s Old is New Again: The Legacy of the

Feminist Art Movement The feminist art movement refers to the efforts and accomplishments of feminists internationally to produce art that reflects women's lives and experiences, as well as to change the foundation for the production and perception of contemporary ar ...

of the 70s" (2010) and "

Louise Nevelson Louise Nevelson (September 23, 1899 – April 17, 1988) was an American sculptor known for her monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures. Born in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Kyiv Oblast, ...

: Empress of Environmental Sculpture" (2013). Another project, "Savoir-Faire," began in 2009 as a platform for women performance artists to realize projects that had not been seen previously. Implemented around the same time were the Artist Studio Residency Program and "SIGHT unSEEN," an ongoing series of gallery tours through the Chelsea arts district, led by guest curators, writers, and artists.

2015—present

After 42 years in Manhattan, SOHO20 relocated to the

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

neighborhood of Bushwick in August 2015; its informal, site-specific name—''SOHO20 Chelsea''—reverted to ''SOHO20 Gallery''. As of July 2019, the gallery left its location in Brooklyn and programming went "on temporary hiatus."

Current and past artist-members

* Vivian E. Browne * Fran Bull *

* Eunice Golden *

Martha Edelheit Martha Nilsson Edelheit (born September 3, 1931, in New York City), also known as Martha Ross Edelheit, is an American-born artist currently living in Sweden. She is known for her feminist art of the 1960s and 1970s, which focuses on erotic nude ...

* Emily Fuller * Moira Geoffrion * Nancy Goldring *

* Lucy Hodgson * Cynthia Mailman * Phyllis Mark *

Juanita McNeely Juanita McNeely (born 1936 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American feminist artist known for her bold works that illustrate the nude female experience in her figurative paintings, prints, paper cut-outs and ceramic pieces. Feminist elements in her ...

* Marion Ranyak *

Ann Rowles Ann Rowles is an American mixed-media sculptor. She lives and works in Atlanta, U.S. Early life and education Rowles received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art in 1969,and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture in 1990, both from the U ...

* Morgan Sanders * Karin Schneider *

References

External links

* {{coord, 40.75139, -74.00421, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-NY, display=title Art museums and galleries in Brooklyn Art galleries established in 1973 1973 establishments in New York City Artist cooperatives in the United States Contemporary art galleries in the United States Cultural history of New York City Feminist art organizations in the United States Women in New York City