WP4 RD

Growing up having the dream of working within the visual art industry, I’ve always been granted the opportunities of accessing art through museum and gallery visits that allow me to gain more knowledge about the visual art world and the hidden issues. Yet, this is not the case for most people, as art is an accompaniment rather than a necessity that people require to survive. Many consider art galleries and museums the places of entertainment for pleasure and relaxation through the viewing process. The history behind the presented works on the wall and the selected artists of the exhibition is less of a focus for viewers as they’re there to either uptake a self-focus visual experience or check a box on a list of must view artworks like Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. The relaxing sensation through the viewing process and the general public’s lack of knowledge of visual art successfully help many galleries and museums conceal the critical issue of gender biases that current female artists still experience.

Actually, just like most workforces in the world, the visual art world faces long-standing gender inequality of lacking female artists representation within galleries and museums as the majority of on-viewing artists are male, which the masses seem to have accepted and normalized. People may argue that male artists just do better art compared to female artists. But this is definitely not true because art, one of the most abstractive areas of expression that requires no prerequisite, shouldn’t be judged based on gender as gender doesn’t influence one’s artistic ability. Many female artists in both past and present tackle the issue with significant commitment as the ultimate goal is to achieve equal opportunities to shine for all genders in the visual art world. Great efforts have been made locally through organizations and groups like the Guerrilla Girls through physical advocacy of posters, letters, and specified exhibitions for female artists. However, due to the masses’ deficiency in care and the lack of exposure to the issue with physical advocation formats that reach relatively small and restricted audiences who already acquire a certain level of art knowledge, these movements have not performed significant changes. The museums and galleries still present drastic differences in the number of female and male artists on-display ratio. So how can we overcome the issue of gender biases in the visual art world? By adapting to the rapidly globalizing world of technology and the internet, the use of social media like Tiktok, Instagram, and Twitter that reach worldwide audiences pushes the progress forward in a great stance. While some say group-based local movements actualize changes to the long-standing bias in female artist representation within traditional visual art platforms, such region-restricted advocation doesn’t launch actual changes to the system of artworks selection as the museums and galleries are still in control of the selected works that are biased in artists’ gender. Instead, we should adopt global social media platforms in further pushing the steps of ending gender inequality in the visual art world forward because the developing social media platforms reach more broad audiences from all ranges, significantly increasing people’s accessibility to artworks and allowing a change of gender inequality from the root. Furthermore, the shift from the physical tangibility of exhibitions to the online perception of social media indicates the prevailing transformation in information up-taking within a continuously globalizing world of technology and the internet.

The lack of female artists’ representation in the visual art world, specifically, the lack of exposure in galleries, museums, and mainstream academic exhibition places, and the selection of art pieces with a bias based on gender has been happening since the beginning of artistic practices. Male artists have saturated the art market since the appearance of artists as a profession, as females were once prohibited from expressing self-agency through art in the earliest stage of medieval times. Due to this restriction, when the majority of people who are not familiar with art think about famous artists throughout history, they will only think of Leonardo Da Vinci, Vincent Van Gogh, or Picasso, who are all male artists that are coined to be the greatest of all time. I’m not saying these male artists are not legendary in their artistic practices, but instead, I’m saying that female artists who share similar or even more profound artistic values would be hidden behind these large names as they have much fewer opportunities for both academic access and exhibition exposure. Think deeper into this phenomenon, the main reason behind the lack of prominent female artists throughout history is the insufficiency of exposure to female artists’ works within galleries and museums, as “artworks by female artists represent only 3% to 5% of major permanent collections in the USA and Europe” (Bocart et al.) even in recent years. In other words, the exposure for female artists in developed countries’ exhibitions spaces is extremely low, allowing male artists to have much greater chances to obtain fame and status, which replay and deepens the cycle of higher male artists’ representation. I believe the specific statistics provided in the article regarding the US and Europe demonstrate the criticality and urgency of gender bias as even developed countries that supposedly lead the world are not engaging in active change to the issue, which existence may even not be acknowledged by the majority. The statistic further reveals the lack of changes in the art industry for decades as it is still such a small percentage of female artists’ works within permanent collections in galleries and museums.

Admittedly, the efforts through physical advocation of posters, letters, and participation-based movements conducted by groups like the Guerilla Girls, who create art pieces demanding galleries’ and museums’ attention on lacking female artist representation in exhibitions, stirred the art world and initiated changes. Specifically, the Guerrilla Girls have changed the art world for the better. As stated by Emma Brockes in her article, “galleries that once showed only 10% women artists now show up to 20%” and “New York museums that, in 1985, gave no women artists a solo exhibition…gave a single woman a solo show last year” (Brocke). I agree with Brockes on the apparent result of the Guerrilla girls’ avocation methods as the statistics demonstrate improvements in galleries and museums’ inclusion of female artists. However, what about the other 30% that is still upvoted by male artists, which is not a small percentage to be neglected, and the other opportunities, disregarding the one and only female artists included in the show, that is taken by male artists. These changes that took tens of years to be accomplished are just a short-term response from the galleries and exhibitions in the hope of stopping the continuous movement harming their businesses. There was no real change to the system of artists selected as the museums and galleries didn’t input any honest reflection rather than stating they would change with little effort. Even the modern Guerrilla Girls participant acknowledges the failure in their tremendous efforts in an interview as the member artist Käthe Kollwitz said, “‘we realized it didn’t work, nobody cared about what we were saying’” (Sayej). So now, acknowledging the increasing globalization of information and ideas with social media, how can we initiate real change to the issue? Rather than just simply stating having changes, we need to solve the problem from the root by rethinking the system of artwork selection. Social media that allows free and vast information flow for everyone within the globalizing world is then the next step for big changes.

In response to the urgent problem in the visual art world, social media like Instagram, Tiktok, and Twitter creates broader and higher exposure platforms for female artists and their works than traditional platforms of museums and galleries. Rather than advocating changes with physical materials to galleries and museums controlled by curators who select works for the audiences, the use of social media allows people to achieve an easier, more inclusive, and less-biased way of viewing arts, disregarding artists’ gender, that directly tackles the issue of lacking female artists’ representation in exhibitions. The prominence of social media in our lives is shaping the way of viewing art in the current world as, according to the Artwork Archive, social media allows artworks to “go directly to your audience” and “avoid the eliteness” (Artwork Archive). By this, the author means the artworks are now accessible to all audiences without a middle person, which is the academic museums and galleries that control the content and audience of the artworks, and often time, it is the middle person who is also the elites who states know more about art, that curate the shows with gender biases. So by allowing audiences to directly perceive the works without prior selection and filter by the museums and galleries, artists of all genders have a relatively equal opportunity for acknowledgment and recognition. The visual art world will not be controlled by biases and prejudice as social media allows art, disregarding the artists’ gender, just to be art: a painting, a sculpture, a video, or any creation that resonates with the audience. Therefore, social media illustrates the quality of the globalization of ideas, information, and people as it is the free and clear transaction of both tangible and intangible things around the globe.

By extension, social media also transforms audiences’ identity as not only people with prior art knowledge but everyone who has access to the platform becomes targeted audiences as they obtain the freedom to choose their favorite artworks without academic platforms’ interferences. Social media grants people the power to share and view as it “offers possibilities for delivering the message to audiences in previously unreachable geographical region” (Oskay and Ozkan 267). By this, the author points out the most critical trait of social media is its ability to give people who may not have access to art education and viewing the chance to learn and enjoy art. The broader access to art then creates platforms for all gender artists, including female artists, to gain attention that is concealed due to gender bias within museums and galleries. I believe that social media presenting artworks done by all genders directly to the audiences without pre-existing criteria or prejudices from the museums and galleries will solve the lack of female artists’ representations in exhibition spaces as it is changing the system of selection rather than the results of the selection. The emerging presence of social media in the visual art world and the world in general then reflects the world’s globalization through advancing technologies and the internet as they are changing the way people perceive the world.

It is crucial to think about the next step for solving critical issues like gender biases within the visual art world because globalization is closely related to the world’s unprecedented advancing technologies presented through the transformation of the physical to the intangible in many aspects, including art. Social media “have become embedded in everyday life” as it “occupies much of our free time” (Schroeder 5626). In other words, social media has become one of the most prominent aspects of our routine as it is the new way of socializing. Globalization of the transfer of information, emotion, and ideas then greatly builds upon the digital socializing platforms that are intangible and unaquired in person. The shift from physical advocations of community-based groups to social media to initiate change to the issue of lacking female artists’ representations within the visual art world is one of the examples of the prevailing transformation from physical to digital. Not only in the art world, but the transformation of matter’s physicality to bodiless is happening in many areas as it signifies the new direction of world globalization that was once prominently supported by the physical transfer of people, resources, and matters.

With the world revolutionizing through advancing technologies, we need to hop on the wave of globalization in finding new ways of tackling the long-lasted issue of lacking female artists’ representation within galleries and museums. With easier access and broader coverage of art, social media is then the surfboard that allows people to access artworks with equal opportunities, disregarding the art elites who select and filter the creations. With the opportunities provided by globalization and the advancing technologies that create free-flowing platforms, it is then our responsibility to actively engage with art through our perception of beauty.