The Time of Our Lives, Drawing Room, London, 2024.

The Time of Our Lives focuses on the pioneering drawing practices of women artists and their impact on feminist activism from the 1980s until today. The exhibition showcases the work of key artists, examining drawing’s versatility as a medium and the ways it has been used by women to raise consciousness around social and political issues, such as reproductive justice, sexism, racism and other forms of oppression.

Working both independently and collaboratively, often without commercial or institutional support, the voices of these agents for change are now being heard and their trailblazing work taken forward by a contemporary generation of women artists. Beginning with drawings made by Monica Ross in the 1980s, the exhibition will include works by Sutapa Biswas, Sonia Boyce, Margaret Harrison, Claudette Johnson, Lizzy Rose and Soheila Sokhanvari, and includes new commissions by Kate Davis and Jade de Montserrat.

The Time of Our Lives will also include an interactive study display in our library, showcasing drawing in magazines, newsletters and posters from UK feminist collectives past and present. The exhibition is curated by Jacqui McIntosh and Drawing Room, supported by a Curatorial Research Grant from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. Commissions fees are kindly supported by Marcelle Joseph. It coincides with Women in Revolt, a concurrent exhibition at Tate Britain.

The exhibition opens on the 24th Jan 2024 and runs until the 21st April 2024. Further information can be found here. 

Installation view, The Time of Our Lives, 2024, The Drawing Room. Photo: BJ Deakin.