Representing a collaborative effort between 10 of NMWA’s national and international committees and the museum, Women to Watch focuses on 32 photographic works by 11 contemporary women artists.

The exhibition was designed to increase the visibility of emerging women artists—from the United States and throughout the world—who are deserving of national and international attention. Covering a broad spectrum of themes, styles, and methods the exhibition introduces the viewer to artists from six states: Marita Gootee (Mississippi), Joan Myers (New Mexico), Lissa Rivera (Massachusetts), Zoe Strauss (Pennsylvania), Tricia Moreau Sweeney (Illinois), and Tarrah Krajnak and Wilka Roig (Vermont) and four countries: Valérie Belin (France), Jin-me Yoon (Canada), Elisa Sighicelli (Great Britain), and Paulina Parra (Spain).

Exhibition visitors will be introduced to contemporary photographers whose work reflects the myriad ways in which the media is used today. These include Myers’ panoramic images of generators and power sources, which address the industrialization’s profound impact on the environment; Strauss’s photographs of people, and the urban landscape, in her hometown neighborhood of South Philadelphia; Gootee’s impressionistic images of nature, which emphasize the mutability of photographic perception; Rivera’s deadpan photo-documentation of communal areas of college fraternity and sorority houses; and Belin’s images of Parisian models which have been manipulated to appear lifeless and sexless, raising questions about contemporary identity.