In today’s Guardian, author Bidisha describes why Mark Leckey shouldn’t have beat three women artists to win the Turner Prize. Not knowing his work (she says it “references laddism, himself and the pop culture that capitalism has enabled”), I can’t say whether I think she’s right. But the “deathless double standard” in terms of the imaginative subjects the art world supports sounds familiar and real to me.

Related: the NEA released a report yesterday that reveals a gender pay gap—among other gender-related trends—between male and female artists. It turns out that female artists do even less well than the average female worker, female artists making 75 cents on the male dollar with the average female worker making 77 cents on the male dollar. There’s plenty of other good stuff to look at, too.

While we’re talking about women and art, remember to go see WACK! at the Vancouver Art Gallery. It closes Jan. 11. Here’s my admittedly kid-in-art-historical-candy-shop review, and here are lots of great images from the show, including realistic paintings of piles of laundry, and abstract paintings of heating vents, and alien pantyhose, and this scroll that was once pulled out of a now-famous vagina.

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Jen Graves (The Stranger’s former arts critic) mostly writes about things you approach with your eyeballs. But she’s also a history nerd interested in anything that needs more talking about, from male...

6 replies on “‘The deathless double standard that prizes men’s imaginary existential whimsy over women’s real struggle’”

  2. Is it really a man versus woman thing? Or is it more an artistic viewpoint question: Which has more intrinsic worth: Art that’s about our materialist struggles here on earth? Or art that’s about a broader, more spiritual vision based on imagination and possibility?

  3. So, if I wanted to help close that gap with my holiday spending, what local artists and musicians would you guys recommend checking out?

  5. I saw WACK! a few weeks ago. Boy, that was a lot of vaginas. I think I’m still recovering. Vagina overload.

    …

    Sounds like something that would require an analgesic cream.

    …

    Good show, though.

  6. I live in Vancouver and also saw WACK! a couple of weeks ago. I work in residence at SFU and intended to bring some residents, who elected not to come. Their (massive) loss. I went on the first Tuesday of the month (admission by donation! For cheap students like me!) and unfortunately only had a few hours there but will go back very soon.

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