The goal of this exhibition F*ck U! In the Most Loving Way is to revisit the critiques of women’s relational roles presented in the 1972 landmark feminist Womanhouse exhibition by showing works that address women’s ongoing challenges to build their lives and thrive within structural and intersectional systems of oppression.

In 1971, under the direction of Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro, 25 students in the Feminist Art Program at California Institute of the Arts began work on an old deserted Hollywood mansion. The exhibition was open to the public from January 30 to February 28, 1972, and is widely known as one of the first major public exhibitions of feminist art. Numerous room installations were created to highlight women’s experiences, gender stereotypes, social expectations for women, and the exploitation of women’s roles such as unpaid domestic affective laborers, ie, “homemakers.”

In the years since this project was realized, much has changed. The majority of women now have lives that expand far beyond traditional domestic walls either by choice or by necessity. Despite their social advances, women find themselves at odds with ongoing expectations of ableist heteronormative patriarchy that refuses to recognize transwomen and genderqueer individuals as women; queer women their rights to marry and have children; and women with disabilities to live on their own with dignity. Married and single women are challenged by having to take on the burden of domestic responsibilities as well as childrearing and familial caretaking –all the while by having become the sole or primary breadwinners in their families. Meanwhile women who embrace leadership roles outside the realms of domesticity continue to encounter disrespect, pity, or both.

At a time when crude and rude discourse in the public sphere seems to be increasingly the norm, this exhibition explores how women are choosing to express their discontent with prescribed and outdated binary gender roles.  F*ck U! In the Most Loving Way explores the range of responses women are faced with making when confronted with conflict within relationships. Can we reply in ways that lead to resolution and more love? Or is it important that women strive to win debates from which they were previously excluded? Since women have been silenced for so long, this exhibition aims to provide a platform for women to air their grievances in manners of their choosing while reminding the viewer that identity is fluid, relational, intersectional, performative and participatory. This exhibition aims to foster dialogue about where women position themselves centrally yet in relation to others. We are seeking works that confront traditional gender roles, express what a “woman” is today, and depict what a  woman’s life is currently really like.

Opening shortly after the 2016 election in the US, this timely exhibition welcomes all points of view about female individuals seeking and possessing power, which includes political power, but also self-empowerment as women endeavor to overcome and put a stop to emotional abuse, physical abuse, domestic abuse, sexual abuse and violence, sexist insults, unrealistic demands, sexual harassment, discriminatory refusals, online trolling, psychological manipulations, and micro-aggressions of all kinds.

F*ck U! In the Most Loving Way celebrates utopian and revolutionary visions about women’s voices, focusing on women’s self-expression, self-respect, and self-care. Works that foster dialogue, whether shocking, confrontational, polite, healing, or well-reasoned, are welcome as we wish to investigate healthy and productive ways to overcome what is often dismissed as women’s hysterical overreactions, bitchy rants, unjustifiable anger or passive aggressive resentment.