Tuesday, October 20, 2026
For centuries, the Roman goddess Venus has been used to represent ideals of feminine beauty, youth, desire and motherhood. What happens when women artists take those traditional ideals and reinterpret them through their own experiences?
That question is at the center of "Deconstructing Venus," a new exhibition at Hofstra University Museum of Art. The museum opens its Emily Lowe Gallery to highlight the work of 20th- and 21st-century women artists to explore changing ideas about femininity and womanhood.
Now on view through Dec. 11, the exhibition features an inspired group of artists: Lee Krasner, Käthe Kollwitz, Elizabeth Catlett, Marisol, Lori Horowitz, Dee Shapiro and sculptor-printmaker Susan Grabel.
The exhibit challenges, reconsiders and expands traditional ideas about femininity and women’s roles in society. Works explore themes of beauty, aging, identity, motherhood, activism and gender roles, while materials from Hofstra’s permanent collection and Special Collections add historical context to the exhibition.
“Deconstructing Venus” begins with a question that has shaped art history for millennia: Who defines what a woman should be? Across cultures and centuries, the female figure has embodied fertility, beauty, devotion, temptation, motherhood, and power. Yet these images have most often been created within systems that limit women’s authority, over their own bodies and representation. By tracing this artistic legacy, the exhibition explores how women artists of the
20th and 21st centuries have challenged, embraced, and redefined these ideals, explains Sasha Giordano, director of the Hofstra University Museum of Art, in the exhibit catalog.
The artists’ works approach long-standing expectations of women from different vantage points.
“Some challenge conventional gender roles and beauty standards, while others embrace aspects of traditional womanhood or examine the constraints women have encountered in a male-dominated society,” Giordano, says.
Susan Grabel’s “Venus Cycle,” a series that traces Venus through the stages of aging while challenging idealized notions of the female form, inspired the exhibit. Grabel’s work offers the most direct challenge to the traditional image of Venus, Giordano explains. She makes her own paper and casts her physical body, creating works that show an older body rather than an idealized, youthful figure.
“There’s a long history of women being presented and idealized through the attributes of Venus and Aphrodite. It’s very hard to live up to these standards of perfection,” Giordano relates.
After visiting Grabel’s studio, Giordano and co-curator Presley Rodriguez, the museum’s assistant director of exhibitions and collections, turned to Hofstra’s collection to find works that could expand the conversation. Undergraduate intern Sarah Braun was also involved in examining the collection, bringing another generation’s perspective to the process.
“The exhibition primarily shares art from the museum’s permanent collection to communicate a variety of women’s stories,” Rodriguez explains.
The artists represented in the exhibition reflect an important shift in art history: women increasingly gained the ability to work independently and tell their own stories.
The exhibit also includes works of non-Western art, demonstrating how women outside Europe and North America have responded to similar societal expectations surrounding gender and womanhood. Additionally, Hofstra Special Collections has contributed archival materials that offer insight into the challenges and achievements of women.
“By bringing these varied perspectives together, “Deconstructing Venus asks viewers to consider how ideas about women have been constructed over centuries – and what changes when women become the creators rather than simply the subjects of art,” Giordano adds.
One of the archival materials on view is a diary belonging to an unidentified woman suffrage activist. An entry dated Nov. 18, 1918, records the writer watching her daughters vote for the first time.
These materials offer a more intimate glimpse into the stories behind the exhibit.
“When you’re looking at these smaller documents, it becomes a more personal experience,” Giordano adds.
As always, public programming extends the conversation beyond the gallery. On Oct. 28, all are invited to “Speak Up! The Art of Civic Engagement.” This discussion examines the relationship between art, social change, and democratic participation. Susan Gottehrer and Arlo Fleischer of the Nassau County Regional Office of the New York Civil Liberties Union offer practical guidance on civic engagement, including how to advocate for issues they care about, communicate effectively with elected officials, and participate in events that shape their community.
“Deconstructing Venus” brings women’s history into conversation with art made by women. Together, these artists replace a singular or limited ideal of womanhood with many individual narratives. No longer confined to stories written for or ascribed to them, these women rightfully claim agency as the authors, witnesses and truth-tellers of their own bodies, histories, struggles, and triumphs.
