On March 19, an exhibition by Andrea Bowers will open at the Glenston Museum. The exhibition, which includes more than 40 works, including a broad selection from Glenstone’s collection alongside important loans from the artist, peer institutions, and private collectors, is one of the largest presentations of Bowers’ work to date. Tracing a history of activism that interweaves ecological concerns with the fight for bodily autonomy, the exhibition includes works that reference several generations of intersectional activists.
Bowers’ multidisciplinary practice bridges fine art with direct action. Over nearly three decades she has produced work including video, sculpture, neon, and drawings on paper and cardboard that amplify and archive the work of activists. Bowers embeds herself in allyship with front-line activists, earning trust through collaboration and long-running engagement.
A highlight of the Glenstone collection of Bowers’ work, the immersive artwork Army of Three Selected Letters & Archives (2023) will be on view in its entirety for the first time. Highlighting the deeply personal archive of three Bay Area activists—Patricia Maginnis, Rowena Gurner, and Lana Phelan, later dubbed the Army of Three—who advocated tirelessly for those seeking access to safe and reliable abortions in the 1960s and 1970s. The installation consists of facsimiles of letters received by the Army of Three alongside decorative wrapping papers arranged in a grid of more than 600 sheets, and archival material given to Bowers by Maginnis and Phelan. The accompanying video work, Letters to an Army of Three (2005), in which personal stories are read aloud, creates a powerful echo between the past and present.
A selection of Bowers’ intimately rendered photorealist drawings are featured prominently throughout the exhibition. Each drawing is made from Bowers’ archive of photographs she has taken of individual protestors at marches and demonstrations around the country. Bowers’ labor and skill memorialize everyday peoples’ urgent acts of resistance and their handmade signs and slogans, celebrating their effort and commitment to making change with her own.
“Andrea Bowers reminds us that beauty and justice are not separate pursuits,” said Nora Severson Cafritz, senior director of collections. “With extraordinary precision and care, her work elevates the stories of communities leading social change, honoring their courage and offering a hopeful vision of what we can build together.”