The dynamic and indefatigable artist collective known as the Guerrilla Girls mark their fortieth anniversary in 2025. The group, who declared themselves “the conscience of the art world,” emerged in 1985 with bold text- and graphic-based prints denouncing discrimination. Comprising anonymous feminist-activist artists, the Guerrilla Girls are known for their provocative street campaigns and the advertising-style graphics that they use to broadcast their messages across billboards, buildings, banners, and other sites. Combining eye-catching aesthetics with stark statistics, the group brings widespread attention to issues of inequality and inequity.

Drawn from NMWA’s extensive holdings of work by the Guerrilla Girls, this exhibition presents an enthralling visual timeline of the group’s progress and ever-expanding subject matter. Although their first focus was gender disparity in the visual arts, today they cast a critical eye over a wide array of fields, including film, theater, politics, and pop culture. While the past four decades have seen unprecedented change in numerous social movements, many of the topics that the Guerrilla Girls addressed in the 1980s and ’90s (reproductive rights, environmental issues, and political corruption, to name a few) remain pressing today.

Over the years, the Guerrilla Girls have continued to make waves with their signature bold installations and advocacy for positive change. This exhibition highlights the collective’s intrepid work and encourages museum visitors to speak up with their own observations and activism. For forty years, the Guerrilla Girls have advocated for greater transparency and fairness in the arts and beyond, and they are not slowing down.