By Anna Piazza

This past Thursday kicked off the opening of the new Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. After nearly 40 years of feminist art influencing today’s culture, it is perhaps one of the first spaces in the world that has finally been established to showcase it all.

The one long-term piece, around which the entire center is built, is Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party.” A major icon of feminist art, the piece is unavoidable in its own separate gallery. Years after its creation it still encompasses an undeniable bravado, and one must remember to look past its dated ’70s style as well as the disappointing fact that only a handful of minorities are named within the entire work; its relevance in the history of feminism is undeniable.

The Sackler Center’s first show, Global Feminisms, is an excellent opening exhibit for the space. The show explores feminist artists and the various angles of feminism from around the world – hence the plural feminisms. The works come specifically from the shift occurring in the 1990s that moved away from western ideas in America and Europe and parallels the famous show “Women Artists 1550-1950” that appeared at the museum in 1977.

Global Feminisms shows its diversity as soon as one enters the room. At only a few steps in paintings, installations, and sculptures take over the same space. Every piece seems to work hand in hand to send their message. The eye darts from the first piece on display, the glistening, insect like cyborg by Lee Bul in “Ein Hungerkünstler,” to Sissi’s impressive “Wings Have No Home,” an installation/performance piece featuring a young woman sitting on a branch suspended in air. Pieces question the role of women in society, at home, and even how women question their own identities. In works such as “Boy Marcus” by Oreet Ashery and “Pin-Up” by Latifa Achakhch, the artists question their role in the religions they grew up in, dressing up in traditional male garb of the Orthodox Jewish and Muslim faiths. Perhaps one of the more emotionally touching collection of photographs are those of Dayanita Singh following the life of Mona, a self castrated eunuch. Through the lens the question arises: what is it to be a woman? And why is gender so important in society? The entire exhibit successfully poses the question of what feminism is and why it exists.