It’s all in her: ‘Every Woman Biennial” in East Village celebrates female and non-binary artists

The Friday night press preview of the “Every Woman Biennial” was packed, but the next day opening had a line down the block of people waiting in the rain to get in

The show is the “Every Woman Biennial,” the theme is “I Will Always Love You” — and the mood is just plain joyous.

Created in 2014 by artist C. Finley as the “Whitney Houston Biennial,” the show’s fifth iteration features over 200 artists and covers every bit of the wall space, some of the floor and a bit of the ceiling at the La MaMa Galleria in the East Village. Designed as a celebration of the works of women and non-binary artists, the show’s public opening on March 2 brought in over 2,000 people — most of whom waited in the pouring rain before getting in.

The team of Jerelyn Huber, Molly Caldwell and Eddy Segal curated the show, considering more than 700 entries (the most ever) and digging into the artists as well, according to Huber.

“We took it very personally,” she said. “We researched their websites and social media and got a good idea of who they were. It was a joy to go through the work.”

The process began in September 2023 with an open call and resulted in submissions from artists in a variety of backgrounds, mediums and ages, with the finalists ranging in age from 14 to 83.

Finley took a step back this year and did not involve herself in the curating process and she’s very happy with the results: “I’m hoping that this can live on as a template to be replicated in other cities, so I wanted to see if it was possible with new curators. The answer is yes!”

“The quality of the work keeps getting better,” she continues. “We keep finding people that have never shown before and the work feels fresh, more intense and more thoughtful.”

She notes that a lot of the work is self-portraiture, probably as a result of the introspection brought on during the pandemic.