The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) launched Hella Feminist in late July, an exhibit exploring the fight for gender equity with focus on the San Francisco Bay Area. By incorporating perspectives often excluded from knowledge production and preservation, the exhibit challenges dominant historical and cultural conceptions of feminism. From the show’s curation to its creative partnerships, Hella Feminist imparts a holistic, fresh, and community-focused approach to understanding feminism and gender.

“There’s some really incredible artwork in this exhibition,” said Hella Feminist co-curator and OMCA Curator of Art, Carin Adams. This includes portraits by Los Angeles-based, Bay Area-raised Shizu Saldamando, who paints her friends, creative peers, and subjects from Latin-Punk and queer communities. The Western canon’s influence on our education limits what most Americans consider “appropriate” for fine art galleries. By painting identities that aren’t typically seen in fine art museums, Saldamando hopes to broaden our conception of who belongs in the creation of art and culture.