East London gallery to channel Peggy Guggenheim with 31 Women exhibition

Back in 1943, collector Peggy Guggenheim handed over a metaphorical microphone to female artists with a now-renowned 31 Women show at her gallery in New York. 74 years later, Bethnal Green gallery Breese Little is set to open a follow up exhibition.

From 2 June – 31 July, Breese Little will host the work of 31 female artists spanning from the 1940s to today. “Taking cues from the transitional moment when surrealism and abstract expressionism co-existed in 1940s New York, two thematic threads will be traced,” the gallery explains. “The first privileging artistic positions embracing the psychological, instinctual and erotic, or which depend on notions of chance, the uncanny and accidental. The second establishing a continuity of formalist inquiry incorporating multiple modes of abstract mark making and production. The exhibition further presents a group of artists with a strong presence in London, offering an engaging survey of important figures working or exhibiting in the city today.”

The artists included in the exhibition are Eileen Agar, Laura Aldridge, Cornelia Baltes, Claire Barclay, Rana Begum, Eva Berendes, Helen Chadwick, Angela de la Cruz, Tracey Emin, Lydia Gifford, Celia Hempton, Allison Katz, Lauren Keeley, Ella Kruglyanskaya, Mary Martin, Cornelia Parker, Aimée Parrott, Mary Ramsden, Bridget Riley, Eva Rothschild, Katie Schwab, Jo Spence, Tyra Tingleff, Patricia Treib, Alison Turnbull, Phoebe Unwin, Gillian Wearing, Rachel Whiteread, Clare Woods, Rose Wylie and Catherine Yarrow.