NAWA Luminaries – NAWA Honorary VP Linda Stein is in the news!
NAWA Luminaries is the intersection of NAWA’s Historical Research and current events around the United States, highlighting celebrated NAWA members.
NAWA Honorary VP Linda Stein is in the news in Flint, Michigan; New York; and Dallas, Texas!
Linda Stein, a feminist artist, activist, educator and writer, is the Founding President of the non-profit Have Art Will Travel Inc. for Courageous Kindness, addressing bullying and diversity. The organization manages the traveling exhibition of The Fluidity of Gender: Sculpture by Linda Stein (FoG), Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females-Tapestries and Sculpture by Linda Stein (H2F2), and Displacement From Home: What To Leave, What To Take – Cabinets, Cupboards, Cases and Closets by Linda Stein. The programming includes lectures, performances, panel discussions, and educational exercises. HAWT’s Curriculum Team has created participatory, social justice art education encounters, which use the traveling exhibitions to initiate conversations about visualizing justice.
Born in the Bronx in 1943 to a working-class Jewish family, Stein attended the School of Visual Arts and Queens College, where she earned a BA. She earned an MA at the Pratt Institute while working as an art teacher and furthered her education at the Art Students League and Pratt Graphics Center.
Soft Curve 312, 1998, Will Barnett Collection
In the 1970s, Stein became passionate about creating an androgynous facial profile below the eye. During this time, she was struggling with her sexuality and womanhood. Stein founded Have Art: Will Travel! (HAWT), a collaborative non-profit arts organization that promotes positive gender roles toward social justice in 1972. Through its exhibitions, lectures, performances, and educational programs, it offers visual and tactile programs that foster social change, equality, and diversity.
In the 1990s, Stein began the sculpture series Blades. Stein fused machetes to other materials. The Ceremonial Scepters looked like ancient weapons and referred to relationships of power and violence. Stein composed origin stories that untied these associations and offered alternatives, such as defense and empowerment for the user.
Knights of Tomorrow, 574, 200.
Stein, whose work is primarily abstract figurative sculpture, notes that her goal as an artist “is to use my art to transform social consciousness and inspire activism for peace, equality and diversity.” A 9/11 survivor, Stein was displaced from her Tribeca home and studio in the aftermath of the attacks, leaving a consequential effect on her art. She turned from abstract to figurative work, armor-like androgynous figures of protection. She gradually incorporated a group of pop-culture and religious icons (Wonder Woman, Princess Mononoke, Lisbeth Salander, Lady Gaga, Storm, and Nausicaa) that could prompt conversations about power and vulnerability. In 2009, Stein attached shoulder straps to her figurative sculpture, allowing the work to be worn like armor and inviting studio visitors to don the “sculptural avatars” and imagine being a differently gendered body.1
Eleven Heroes, Tapestry
Drawn to the subject of the Holocaust and then global displacement and understanding how power and vulnerability led to genocide and the uprooting of populations, she created a visual dialogue about being an “everyday” Upstander rather than a bystander. First exhibited at the Flomenhaft Gallery in Chelsea in December 2014, historical accounts of women who actively intervened to save Jews from Nazi persecution inspired ten tapestries. In her work and lectures, Stein seeks to bring protection and empathy to a higher level of awareness in her audience.2
In 2015, Stein’s work turned to sexism in society and the art world. Her work examines representation and financial support given to men and the lack of support for women artists. This work also references the #MeToo movement.
More recent work has turned to American political figures.
A board member of the Veteran Feminists of America, whose purpose is to honor, record, and preserve the history of the accomplishments of women and men active in the feminist movement, to educate the public on the importance of the changes brought about by the women’s movement, and to preserve the movement’s history for future generations,” is an organization Stein notes is “making women feel more inspired by their authentic selves.” 3
Stein, the NAWA Artist Honoree for Commitment to Arts and Culture in 2016, is currently in 4 exhibitions:
Armored for Today’s Events is a solo exhibition from September 3rd through September 24th at MCC Fine Arts Gallery in the Visual Arts and Design Center on the Mott Community College main campus, 1401 East Court Street, Flint, Michigan. Below the Eyes: Sexuality and Averting the Gaze, a live artist webinar on Thursday, September 19th at 1:30, can be accessed here.
25th Anniversary Retrospective is a group exhibition from August 28th through November 4th at Perrella Art Gallery at Fulton Montgomery Community College, 2805 State Highway 6, Johnstown, New York.
Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females – Sculpture and Tapestries by Linda Stein is a solo show through April 1, 2025, at the Museum of Biblical Art, 7500 Park Lane, Dallas, Texas.
I’M A THOUSAND DIFFERENT PEOPLE -– EVERY ONE IS REAL is a solo show through January 5, 2025, at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, 28 Wooster Street, New York, New York.
Sources:
3https://www.haveartwilltravel.org/about/
1https://www.readingeagle.com/2014/07/23/artist-creates-wearable-sculptures/
2https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Stein_(artist)
Susan M. Rostan, M.F.A , Ed.D. Co-Leader: NAWA Historical Research Team. Website
Signature Member of the National Association of Women Artists
NAWA. Empowering Women Artists Since 1889
