The art collective fierce pussy will receive the 2019 Public Art Dialogue (PAD) Award for achievement in the field of public art. The PAD Award recognizes an individual or group whose contributions to public art have shaped its practice. Nominations from PAD membership are received by the Award Committee, which, in turn, selects the annual awardee.
fierce pussy formed in New York City in 1991 and was composed of a fluid and often shifting cadre of women. Four of the original core members, Nancy Brooks Brody, Joy Episalla, Zoe Leonard, and Carrie Yamaoka, still work together. fierce pussy’s approach to public art embodies the idea of dialogue that PAD promotes. This is manifested in their ephemeral, guerrilla, and democratic public art practice in combination with their continuing and sustained LGBTQ+, HIV/AIDS, and get-out-the-vote activism.
fierce pussy will accept the PAD Award on Thursday, February 14 as part of a ceremony and reception in conjunction with CAA’s 107th Annual Conference in New York City. The ceremony will take place at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. A reception following the award ceremony is co-sponsored by the Queer Caucus for Art and the Committee on Women in the Arts.
Image credit: (c) Kristine Eudey, 2018, fierce pussy facade commission, Leslie-Lohman Museum.