Fight Like a Girl!

Hand to Hand Combat Between Narrative, Symbolism and Persona

March 9 - April 14, 2002

"Fight Like A Girl!" a new exhibit by three Bay Area women artists, will be presented from March 9 through April 14, 2002 at the Arts Benicia Gallery in Benicia. An art reception will take place March 10 at 2:00 p.m. An artist talk will take place on April 6 at 7:30 p.m.

The three artists- Katherine Aoki, Nancy Mizuno Elliott and Isis Rodriguez- all combine feminism with an irreverent sense of humor and comic book-style fun.

The show, which is being designed specifically for the Arts Benicia gallery space on Tyler Street, bears many of the earmarks of installation art. It will feature special lighting and coloring effects that will create a theatrical, almost cabaret atmosphere in which to view the art.

Kathy Aoki, who lives in Alameda, will show comic-style art books and linocut prints of wide ranging sizes. Oakland's Nancy Mizuno Elliott will display two-dimensional and three-dimensional mixed media work. Isis Rodriguez, a San Francisco resident, will exhibit large-scale drawings and two-dimensional wood carvings.

"Fight Like A Girl!" is a celebration of "girl power." While attempting to tweak the nose of convention, each artist in her way deals with important social issues such as gender stereotypes, female role models, female anxieties and the role of the opposite sex in all of this.