A large-scale exhibition entitled The Woman Question: 1550–2025 was presented in Warsaw, curated by art historian Alison M. Gingera in collaboration with Ewa Klekot and Beate Putz. Ten Ukrainian artists took part in the exhibition. The project refutes the long-standing myth about the alleged absence of women artists in world art and offers a reinterpretation of the canon through the prism of female experience.
The exhibition consists of nine thematic blocks and covers almost 500 years. About 200 works — from the latest creations to canvases from the Renaissance, Baroque and 19th centuries — form a centuries-old visual history of women's emancipation and the relentless struggle for visibility in the art world.
According to the organisers, the exhibition challenges the established notion that women in art were rare exceptions until the 20th century. On the contrary, despite social restrictions and underestimation, female artists consistently realised and affirmed the significance of their own experience. The project demonstrates the power of a new perspective on art history — a perspective that demands justice, gives voice to the "invisible," and leads to a rethinking of the so-called traditional canon.
The exhibition explores a wide range of themes: allegories of power, resistance and sexual violence; women's access to art education; physicality and erotic desires; iconography of motherhood and reproductive choice; women's activism in war; and how women's roles in society change at turning points.
The project features works by nearly 150 artists from Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Great Britain, Egypt, India, Italy, Canada, Mexico, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, the United States, Tanzania, Turkey, Ukraine, Finland, France, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Sweden. Among them are ten Ukrainian artists: Alla Horska, Tetyana Yablonska, Vlada Ralko, Lesya Khomenko, Kateryna Lisovenko, Kinder Album, Dana Kavelina, Marharyta Polovinko, Karina Synytsya, and Sana Shahmuradova Tanska.
The exhibition will run from 21 November 2025 to 3 May 2026 at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.