International Women’s Day 2024: The Global Edit

International Women’s Day isn’t just a day to celebrate the existing strides taken towards gender equality and women’s rights, it’s also an opportunity to reflect on the journey ahead and the role each one of us plays in fostering an equitable world. Across the globe, we’re consistently blown away by the incredible, change-making work of our female-identifying gallerists and artists, and wholly believe in the power of art to challenge norms and inspire action.

So, to celebrate the achievements of artists and industry professionals from a global perspective, we’ve taken a deep dive into three trending topics: Connection to Land and Nature, Art Activism, and The Power and Politics of Fibre Arts. These categories help to transcend boundaries, provoke thought, and evoke emotion.

Explore the full guide to uncover the diverse mediums and unique perspectives that contribute to a richer, more inclusive narrative of the female and gender non-conforming experience.

Connection to land and nature

Vanessa Valero

Vanessa Valero‘s work provides a glimpse into how she interprets life, exploring different places, beings, and ways of existing. In both her hand-tufted tapestries and drawings, she examines consciousness and its various forms. While the tapestries embody the seeking aspect of her spiritual journey, the drawings capture the diverse forms of life she encounters, sparking questions about the nature of existence.

Hi Vanessa – can you give us a glimpse into what inspires you as an artist, and how this translates into your amazing tapestries?

The spontaneity of my drawings arises from an unplanned meditative state. They represent my inner landscape and engagement with various forms of existence that I feel a part of.

“The landscapes, to some extent, are both real and psychological, shaped by the environment I find myself in.”

The psychological aspect comes from the filters influenced by the landscape and the culture I encounter in those contexts. These artworks are my visual response to environments, whether natural or human, and what provides the most authentic and compelling response is working with color.

Color, whether in tapestry or painting, is the medium through which my experiences find expression. My work is a celebration of life, a response to its beauty, and these artworks serve as pages from my visual diary. They’re not planned but are responses to a meditative presence.

“It’s meditative response to the realization that we are all interconnected—a realization that can be both wonderful and painful.”

These creations are my thoughts translated into art.

The photographs of your artworks within the landscapes that inspire them are so beautiful. Why is this important to your practice, and how does it feel to see (or hold) your artwork in this setting?

My tapestries reflect the landscape I live in, whether Colombia or the other places I’ve had the opportunity to live, not as something I physically go to see, but as a landscape within me that finds expression. 

When I create my landscape tapestries, it’s never an exact representation of a particular place, but rather how I absorb the surrounding environment. So, when I finish the tapestry or the painting, I like to photograph them in locations that evoke the feeling I intended to convey. For me, the juxtaposition of the tapestry and the landscape completes the narrative and the creative process. I greatly enjoy going on these trips to photograph the final pieces, and they also serve as inspiration for creating the next ones.

What do you hope people take away from your work?

My intention with my work is to inspire people to think outside themselves and reflect in their own existence. This is just my way to communicate my own questions about life, but they are in the service of who interacts with them. 

Káren-Ann Hurri

Káren-Ann Hurri is a Sámi artist, designer, and cultural worker. She originates from the northern village of Gárásavvon in Sweden’s Sápmi region. Káren-Ann is committed to making a positive social impact through her work; her passion lies in using her creative talents to address societal issues, particularly those concerning Sámi culture and equity.

Can you speak about the connection between women and nature, and how this features in your work?

A lot of knowledge and stories of the Sámi women have been lost due to colonization. The Western men who exploit our culture were, and are, mainly interested in talking to other men and have little respect for the way of the women. I believe women are more emotionally sensitive to what earth tries to tell us, the cycles and the signals in nature affect our beings, mood, bodies.

“I try to research and preserve Sámi women’s knowledge and weave it in to my arts.”

Language, words and expressions that are inspired by women and nature (where I see connection and coherence) inspire me, especially movement and nurture. We need to start valuing the spirituality and emotional intelligence in women as highly as science and calculations. Unfortunately, with the age of statistics and AI, this fight for societal value-change feels far away.

Striving for societal change plays an important role in your work. What specific cultural shifts would you like to see, and in what ways do you see art as a tool to make these changes? 

I work with indigenous feminism and equality issues on mainly two different plains. First with educating majority society on the differences and specific issues for Sámi women. Sometimes the fight for women’s rights in majority society is more harming than progressive for minority groups. I have never felt comfortable to engage in the issues in majority organizations because of the lack of cultural understanding. If I had to choose between fighting for equality between men and women or Swedes and Sámi it would be the Sámi battle because we are such a small group and every persons engagement makes a huge difference while there are millions of feminist all over the world.

Secondly, and maybe more importantly, I fight for awakening and maintaining a feminist movement within Sápmi and the Sámi community. As stated, our community faces different issues and if we are not the ones to internally fight then no one else will. My art is mainly a tool to awaken other Sámi, to make it more natural and easy to reflect upon these internal equality issues and portray the emotions and taboos connected to them.

Jasmine Coe | The Coe Gallery

Coe Gallery represents many female artists from different Aboriginal nations, believing in the importance of celebrating and uplifting their female-identifying artists who continue to keep their cultures alive by sharing their stories through their artwork. They are based in Bristol and are the UK’s first Aboriginal owned gallery dedicated to supporting Emerging and Established Aboriginal artists.

We spoke to Jasmine Coe, artist, curator and founder of Coe Gallery, about the themes of love for land, nature and caring for country, which are central to her work. Over to Jasmine!

My connection to my heritage continues to inform my artistic practise as it becomes a place where I can process experiences and celebrate Wiradjuri values. By being on the other side of the world, painting becomes a place of deep reflection and connection. Through my dual heritage (Wiradjuri and British), my work becomes my personal meeting place of my two cultures where I can explore self identity. Here, I celebrate the natural world and values I have learnt from my Wiradjuri heritage. The themes of my works are my personal interpretations of stories that have been shared with me and my own experiences from connecting to my Wiradjuri heritage.

There are many Aboriginal nations that are Matriarchal, including Wiradjuri culture, where there is a deep respect for women. I have learnt that prior to Colonisation, there were no derogatory terms for women. It is my understanding that Matriarchal values hold a deep love, connection and protection towards the earth. At Coe Gallery, a consistent theme throughout many of our artists works is this same deep respect and love for our artists homelands and the natural world. Throughout our exhibitions we centre these voices, values and experiences. We hope to inspire this same respect for the natural world in people visiting our exhibitions. 

Coe Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Australia and the lands and waters on which they have lived, since time immemorial. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

Charlotte Chin

Charlotte Chin is represented by the female-owned Art Forum, an art gallery in Singapore specialising in discovering new talent in Southeast Asia.

We love Charlotte’s beautiful abstract landscapes, which are full of unique texture and layered form. From the densest jungles to the deepest oceans, Charlotte captures her encounters with nature, fostered from a strong connection to the landscapes she discovers on her travels around the world.

“In the past, I sought only to capture these elusive elements through journaling. Nowadays, they are expressed in tandem through the language of nature in my creations.”

Thinking of her paintings as journals, Charlotte is able to reimagine the forgotten landscapes of her travels. And, at the heart of every single work, lies a powerful portrayal of nature born from years of generational observation.

Art Activism

Marisa Mu | Tits & Co.

Tits & Co. is a community driven project and collective that recognises, supports and celebrates female and gender-non conforming artists from all over the world. Their central purpose is to forefront the high standard and diverse modes of story-telling produced by historically marginalised voices. Hearing from Marisa Mu – Co-Founder, Curator and Producer – was a real pleasure. Here’s what she had to say about collecting art with activism in mind.

First of all, can you walk us through the mission of Tits & Co.?

We believe in the integrity of honest work and the positive impact that art can have on our lives and are working towards changing the long-standing under-representation of female and queer artists in the world. We believe Tits & Co. is the platform that can change the way people perceive, connect, buy and engage with women and gender non-conforming artists and their artistry. We want to collectively make a positive impact in this world and want you to join us in this movement for positive change.

As an artist yourself, how do you see art as a catalyst for driving social change?

Art is a mirror of the times in which we are living and, as a practising artist, my art is a complete embodiment of my soul’s purpose. I am a story-teller and art is my language. It is the channel for creatives to communicate and connect with the world on what is happening around them, on how they perceive the world through their diverse lens. 

As a queer woman of colour, it is fundamental within my arts practice to forefront my community – from painting liberated femme figures to sharing spoken word on cultural displacement and assimilation; sharing our lived experiences and narratives is the catalyst for driving social change.

“All art forms and practices produced by female and gender non-conforming artists are fundamentally a form of activism.”

And to dive into this important and socio-political approach, it is paramount to recognise that art is so diverse and representational of lived experiences, Tits & Co. artists are unique and deserve a platform to be seen, heard and collected because their work speaks the volumes of our generation. 

Personal and Artistic Visibility is paramount and to have the agency and support to be able to connect with collectors, gallerists and art enthusiasts in the commercial art world is a rarity because of the systemic misogyny and bias we are all conditioned by through centuries of traditionalist art spaces.

It is important to acknowledge that we are not in the past, we are currently witnessing and living in a time where the innate desire to share unheard narratives and visual depictions of resilience, self-love, compassion and liberation are at the forefront of communities, both in and outside of the art world. The Affordable Art Fair has held space for Tits & Co. to not just be story-tellers, but truth tellers. 

What advice would you give to an art collector looking to inject a sense of activism into their collection?

My advice to art collectors that want to express their solidarity, ally-ship and support for marginalised voices is to acquire art from living artists that come from these communities. Your support speaks volumes as it is what is essential in fuelling an artist’s practice, whether the artist is Black, Indigenous, a Person of Colour, a woman or from the LGBTQIA+ community, you are playing a vital role in the preservation of their stories and empowering them to continue their artistry and make valuable work. 

I have eternal gratitude for my collectors over the years who have resonated with my practice in profound ways, from wanting their children to grow up around intersectional feminism to wanting to add colour into their everyday life. Art is essential to living a fulfilled life and as humans, we gravitate towards the light and truth of the world. Reach out to artists who you connect with, it will mean more to them than you’ll ever know. 

Laura Nsengiyumva

Laura Nsengiyumva is a Brussels-based artivist, architect and researcher. Through her interdisciplinary practice, Nsengiyumva explores themes such as diasporic experience, hidden histories, North-South relations, and empathy. She speaks about these topics through images and interventions on colonial spaces. Her transcultural view of history is based on human stories that invite us to find what brings us together. Her artivists actions like PeoPL (the melting of a statue of Leopold II) and Queen Nikkolah, are part of her research project: “Shaping the presence of the African diaspora in Belgium”.

During our 2024 Brussels edition, Nsengiyumya joined forces with SOS Villages d’Enfants / SOS Kinderdorpen on a new project, City Jewel. Dedicated to creating awareness and understanding of complex trauma, visitors to the fair were invited to transform their own individual experiences into hundreds of beads. The result both recognises and connects their stories, serving as a message that what they’ve experienced never should’ve happened. Featuring hundreds of individual beads, the monument will be installed at Square Marguerite Duras in the centre of Brussels.

This sense of community artivism shows the uniting elements of art, with its roots in the togetherness we’ve seen as key to the driving of positive social change throughout history. As a renowned figure in the Brussels art scene, Nsengiyumva is a must-know figure this International Women’s Day. Keep up to date with her artivism pursuits.

The Power and Politics of Fibre Art

Jessie Cutts

Jessie Cutts is a UK-based artist who creates vibrant and textural hand-stitched art quilts. Working with deadstock fabrics, trimmings and offcuts, she breathes new life into discarded materials, infusing her work with a sense of purpose and responsibility towards the environment. We asked Jessie for her thoughts on the power of fibre art.

Hi Jessie – can you talk us through the details of your practice?

The pieces I make use patchwork and quilting stitches, the designs have an organic, improvisational approach to pattern and line work. These are ‘made’ artworks, using a domestic, functional craft to create pieces that are at once modern, colourful and textural. I make these works in direct response to the fabric, by mostly free-form sewing – using trimmings from previous works, scraps, upcycled clothes, offcuts from clothing manufacture.

I stumbled upon this way of working, with freedom and not too much planning, out of being somewhat intimidated by formal quilt patterns. I gave myself room to make ‘mistakes’ until I landed on this approach. It keeps my work feeling fresh and unconstrained, using mistakes and improvisation as a positive force.

And we’d love to know more about how this freedom transfers into empowering your chosen medium?   

Historically, fibre arts have been dismissed as ‘women’s work’ or merely ‘decorative arts’ and not taken seriously in the art world. Quilts as domestic items, often made from necessity at home with whatever was available, were very much the domain of the craft world. In time, opinions and views on quilting in particular have changed, but there is still a difference between the way a painting is viewed versus something made. In my mind, there is no difference between the artistic merits of a textile work and a painting, it’s simply a matter of materials and the skills required to manipulate them. However, quilts are of course steeped in centuries of tradition, and for me bring together – as they always have – craft, abstract art, functional utility and graphic design.

“In some way, I hope to elevate the idea of quilting beyond the realms of gendered domesticity while preserving the skills and traditions of so many women before.”

Marisol Art NYC | Mariana Trípoli

Established by Marisol Lozano-Loza, Marisol Art NYC specializes in contemporary Latin American art by female-identifying artists. It’s the stories behind the art that matter to Marisol, and we were eager to discover more about Mariana Trípoli’s creative journey, which begins in the heart of Mendoza, Argentina.

Born and nurtured in this idyllic country, Trípoli’s practice has emerged as a profound reflection of her surroundings and innermost emotions. Mariana harnesses the transformative power of textiles to convey profound meaning and inspire her audience with positive messages that resonate with the human soul: a call to “slow down,” an invitation to embrace life’s true essence, a reminder to “be present,” and the revelation that obstacles are mere illusions.

Through her meticulous technique, honed over years of research and experimentation, she elevates humble materials like hand-made felted sticks, threads, seeds, and reclaimed metal into vessels of emotional resonance. Each element is carefully chosen and imbued with symbolism, serving as a visual language through which she communicates messages of hope, resilience, and empowerment. By weaving together these diverse elements, Mariana creates pieces that speak directly to the human spirit, urging viewers to awaken to their potential, persevere in the face of adversity, and recognize the illusionary nature of obstacles.

“In doing so, she taps into the inherent power of textiles to not only adorn our surroundings but also to elevate our souls and ignite positive transformation within us.”

Trípoli’s choice of fibers as her primary medium is no accident—it’s a deliberate expression of her belief that textiles serve as the unbroken thread that binds the past, the present, and the future.

As our International Women’s Day celebration draws to a close, we hope you’ve been inspired by these topics that highlight the critical role art plays in driving social change and promoting gender equality. We’re super proud to be part of this ongoing movement, and we’d love you to join us in celebrating the achievements of female-identifying artists at your next fair visit. Make sure to get it in the calendar, and consider supporting women artists and gallerists as you peruse the aisles!