Feminist Art Gallery

Feminist Art Gallery (or FAG) is an art gallery in Toronto, Ontario, described as a “geographical footprint” co-founded by artists Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue in 2010.

Allyson Mitchell is an artist professor of women’s studies at York University. Deidre Logue is an artist, and works at V tape. Together they have merged their practices to create the growing entity that is FAG. The two have said that FAG is a “political pot-luck, free-schooling, backyard screening, axe grinding, directed reading, protest sign making, craft den, incantation, herbal tea and gluten-free muffin top artist talk sensation.”

FAG’s mission is to grow sustainable feminist and queer art that proposes an alternative model for artist-run centres by not depending on formal funding sources such as government and corporate institutions. FAG provides a space for art exhibitions, and opportunities for artists who are emerging, and invisible such as queer artists and POC.

Their mandate states that it “is a response, a process, a site, a protest, an outcry, an exhibition, a performance, an economy, a conceptual framework, a place and an opportunity. We host we fund we advocate we support we claim.” The gallery operates alternatively to traditional galleries in the sense that artists do not submit proposals, and Mitchell and Logue act as “feral curators”, which means they look to friends and peers to suggest which artists to show. The art is also not for sale, rather the artists receive a fee from private donations raised through its “matronage program”.

Their most notable project are a series of banners funded by the University of Brighton for an Exhibition called “Civil Partnerships-Queer & Feminist Art & Activism”. The series of four banners made of crochet granny squares read: “WE CAN’T COMPETE”, “WE WON’T COMPETE”, “WE CAN’T KEEP UP”, “WE WON’T KEEP DOWN”. These slogans are central to FAG’s mandate in which they ask “ “Why would you want to be a winner in this hierarchical structure?” and “How do we both resist and reconcile our participation in this oppressive system?”.

FAG has collaborated with institutions such as SFMOMA, Tate Modern, and were the artists in residence in 2015 at The Art Gallery of Ontario. They have also done projects with the Whippersnapper Gallery, The Power Plant, The Gallery of York University, Access Gallery, and Artists Independent Archives .