Members
Maria Dumlao, Elaine Kaufmann, Danielle Mysliwiec, Anne Polashenski
Education
MFA Hunter College--2003, 2004
Exhibitions
Air Kissing, Contemporary Art About the Art World, Momenta Art, Nov. 16th - Dec. 17th 2007Redhead, 2006, curated by Seth Cameron at LMCC, New York
Performances
Brainstormers Performance, 5 May, 2007, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Made possible by the Puffin Foundation and the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
How Good Are You?, 11 March 2006, corner of 12th Ave & 50th Street, across from Armory Show, Pier 90, New York, NY
Set up as an "Ethical Testing Machine" across from the 2006 Armory fair, Brainstormers invited visitors to answer questions regarding ethical standards within the art world. In a language suggestive of personality testing in magazines, viewers answered multiple-choice questions on topics ranging from the influence of corporate sponsorship for exhibitions, curatorial responsibility and power, and discrimination. Over 200 surveys were completed.
At the end of the test, the machine (made up of our 4 members) printed out an individualized "Etho-Rhythm" that measured the participant's Romance, Conscience, and Finance levels. In addition armory visitors received a free copy of our "Brainstormers Gallery Guide." This 8 page guide included our research findings regarding gender inequality in the New York gallery world.
Point, 13 March 2005, Greater New York 2005, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art, Long Island City, New York
Our first performance piece took place across from the opening of Greater New York at P.S.1. in March of 2005. Rumors of a gender imbalance in this show, which marketed itself as the most comprehensive survey of emerging New York artists, lead us to begin research. We found that though MFA programs in the tri-state area have a majority of women artists, this statistic is not mirrored in the commercial and institutional art world. In addition, we believed that P.S.1 relied on gallery validation in the selection process and thus acted as a mere extension of a world already biased against women artists.
Publications
Brainstormers Report: Scene and Herd, Vol. 2, May 2007
Brainstormers Report Gallery Guide, Chelsea Issue, Vol. 1, March 2006
The Brainstormers Report Gallery Guide presents a satirical essay and graphs that show the representation of women artists in Chelsea. These graphs result from researching 198 Chelsea Galleries.
In addition, the guide offers a new view of the Chelsea Map, which details individual galleries and denotes the representation of women at each gallery by a color code.
We distributed this new gallery guide at our performance: How Good Are You? on March 11, 2006.Brainstormers Report Photo Essay, Women’s Studies Quarterly, “Activisms,” Vol. 35, Spring 2007 (forthcoming)
Women’s Studies Quarterly is an educational project of the Feminist Press at CUNY and the Center for the Study of Women and Society at The Graduate Center, City University of New York.“The Cutting Edge and The Corporate Agenda,” Women & Environments International Magazine, Published by the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto, Spring 2007
Awards
2007 Grant from the Puffin Foundation.Bibliography
Birnir, Adda, Feminism Blurs Line Between Art, Politics, Yale Daily News, April 17, 2007
Zimmer, Amy, A Place at the Table, Metro New York, March 23, 2007, pg. 2
Davis, Ben, White Walls, Glass Ceiling, Artnet.com, March 12, 2007, Cover Story
Taylor, Kate, Feminism Goes Back Under the Lens, New York Sun, March 2, 2007
Reckitt, Helena, Who Wants to Be A Feminist Artist?, http://www.ratsaladeluxe.com/ratsaladsite/reckitt.htm
Press and Blog Coverage related to Brainstormers’ Performance - “How Good Are You?”:
Carter, Robert, Mixed Greens Blog, March 13, 2006, Brainstorming the Armory? http://www.thepit.typepad.com/Fette’s Flog, March 13th 2006, http://www.the-flog.com/current.html
Johnson, Paddy, Special Report: There is a Hole, March 7, 2006, www.artfagcity.blogspot.com
Anonymous Female Artist (A.K.A. Militant Art Bitch), Von Heyl Gets Her Due + Brainstormer Action, March, 13th 2006, http://anonymousfemaleartist.blogspot.com/
Press and Blog Coverage related to Brainstormers, gender inequality, and “Greater New York 2005”:
Zimmerman, Amy, "PS1 Show Biased Against Women" Cover Story, Metro
Newspaper, NY edition, Monday, March 14, 2005Robinson, Walter, "Artists Protest Greater New York," Artnet.com,
March 15, 2005 http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/news/artnetnews2/artnetnews3-15-05.aspIlel, Nell, "Young Artists and Their Admirers Flock to LIC for PS1's Latest," Queens Chronicle,
March 17, 2005
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1863&dept_id=152670&newsid=14168741&PAG=461&rfi=9Kimmelman, Michael, “youth and the Market, Love at First Sight,” The New York Times, March 18 (Brainstormers is the picketing “clutch”):
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/18/arts/design/18KIMM.html?hpFallon, Roberta, and Rosof, Libby, "Greater Than What?" Fallon and Rosof's Artblog, March 15, 2005
http://www.fallonandrosof.com/2005/03/greater-than-what.htmlMTAA-RR, Greater New York Gender Equality, February 12, 2006
http://www.mteww.com/mtaaRR/news/twhid/greater_new_york_gender_equality.htmlAll images and research on this website are copyright of the artists, ©2005-2008 Brainstormers
