Most people know Judy Chicago from her magnum opus, The Dinner Party (1974-1979), so beautifully installed at the Brooklyn Museum. But her exhibition that opened last night at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Miami, inaugurating fair week in the city, has visitors reeling. The myth of Chicago as a radical, feminist icon has always, somehow, preceded the work. This modestly scaled show cracks that myth wide open with its joyous proliferation of vulvas. Chicago, it seems, has always known that the most effective way to smash patriarchy is for a woman to embody her sexuality and project it back into the world. There is so much that is good here. You really need time to savor the ceramics and works on paper, the real knockouts in this show.
Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, 61 NE 41st St, Miami, FL 33137, December 4, 2018 – April 21, 2019.
