10 inspirational female artists

Italian-Baroque painter, Artemisia Gentileschi, was a widely renowned contemporary of Caravaggio at a time when female artists were unheard of. Her dramatic and brutal paintings are some of the most progressive portrayals of Biblical and Classical scenes ever painted.

Jeanne-Claude, who is survived by her art-partner and husband Christo, mummified landscapes using millions of square ft worth of brightly coloured fabric that stretched over Cathedrals, coastlines and even archipelagoes.

Njideka Akunyili Crosby, the collage-extraordinaire, paints portraits of figures in domesticated spaces that reflect sensual and voyeuristic moments in a contemporary and transcultural society. Look closer at the multi-layered figures and her work becomes an amalgamation of intimate photographs from her childhood in Nigeria.

Universally referred to as the ‘Grandmother of Performing Art’, Marina Abramovic continues to make headlines by creating art that challenges the body both physically and psychologically. Her intense and ritualistic performances have included Abramovic setting herself on fire, as well as reducing her fans to tears.

Agnes Denes founded political and ecological art by constructing "Wheatfield: A Confrontation" - her project of Summer '82 which saw her plant and harvest two acres of wheat between the extremely urban and densely populated spaces of  the Statue of Liberty and World Trade Centre. The work was an immensely powerful venture that raised questions about the mismanagement of land and sustainability.  

Alice Neel’s psychological portraits broke boundaries by emasculating her male protagonists and exposing her sitters’ scars. Her expressively painted portraits documented a history of people throughout the twentieth century like no other.  

The first ever woman to win the Turner Prize and Young British Artists, Rachel Whiteread’s signature sculptures are often large concrete casts of buildings, rooms, stairs or chairs that evoke the space’s previous human interaction.

Despite being well into her nineties, Yayoi Kusama’s dazzlingly dotty mirror rooms and hallucinatory paintings of infinity nets continue to send art-goers crazy, teleporting them into surreal spaces.   

African-American artist Kara Walker is best known for her powerful and political cut outs that invoke themes of race and identity, gender and sexuality. Often exploring ‘slavery’ as a subject, Walker is best known for filling Brooklyn’s Domino Sugar Factory with a large Sphinx-like woman that responded to the building and its history.  

Cui Xiuwen’s latest body of experimental photography addresses issues of womanhood in modern day China, such as anxiety, vulnerability and compassion. Through her voyeuristic dreamscapes, Xiuwen is shaking up contemporary art for women in China, by giving rise to political issues.