20/20 VISIONARIES 

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20/20 Visionaries is a series of twenty paintings that pay tribute to twenty pioneering female artists of the twentieth century. Each work features a singular, solid-colored circle set against a background that visually echoes the distinct aesthetic language of its subject—whether through palette, gesture, texture, or composition. The circle functions as both a unifying formal device and a symbolic reference to Judy Chicago’s iconic feminist installation The Dinner Party (1974–79), where each guest is represented by a handcrafted plate at a communal, circular table. In this series, the circle becomes a site of recognition, conversation, and reclamation—a contemporary table setting for continued dialogue among women in art history.

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At the center of each circle lies a reimagined nineteenth-century scientific illustration. These delicate renderings—depicting sea creatures, cellular organisms, and natural forms—were selected for their formal resonance with the female body and their historical connection to systems of classification and observation. By inserting these diagrams into the symbolic “plates” of 20/20 Visionaries, the series juxtaposes two visual traditions: the empirical gaze of science, which sought to name and dissect, and the creative gaze of women artists, which sought to reimagine and reclaim.

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The use of illustrations that recall aspects of female anatomy highlights a long-standing art historical tendency to associate women’s creative output with the body, often in reductive or essentializing ways. Yet, rather than rejecting this lineage outright, 20/20 Visionaries reframes it—transforming the anatomical and biological into sites of agency, multiplicity, and generative power. The circular form, simultaneously cellular and celestial, domestic and cosmic, invites viewers to consider how female creativity, like these organisms, has always been both deeply rooted and infinitely expansive.

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Ultimately, 20/20 Visionaries celebrates the vision, resilience, and interconnectedness of women artists across time. It asks us to see with clarity—“20/20 vision”—the historical threads that link scientific inquiry, feminist art, and the ongoing act of redefining how women are seen and remembered.

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The female artists in 20/20 Visionaries will most likely include: 1. Judy Chicago, 2. Yayoi Kusama, 3. Beatriz Milhazes, 4. Ruth Asawa, 5. Niki de Saint Phalle, 6. Georgia O’Keeffe, 7. Lee Bontecou, 8. Hilma af Klint, 9. Helen Frankenthaler, 10. Sonia Delaunay, 11. Howardena Pindell,  12. Julie Mehretu, 13. Judy Pfaff, 14. Bridget Riley, 15. Joan Mitchell, 16. Vija Clemens, 17. Lee Krasner, 18. Agnes Martin, 19. Louise Nevelson, and 20. Anni Albers.

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