Dotty Attie is this really cool artist who started this really cool gallery in the 70s called A.I.R. which stands for Artists in Residence, Inc.

They were going to call it Eyre Gallery after Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre but ultimately decided against it. If you ask me, the gallery should have been called B.I.R. for Badasses in Residence, Inc. but, luckily, no one asked me.

A.I.R. Gallery began in 1972, when the art world was a female vacuum. Women were fed up with their lack of representation in the art world, so Dotty Attie and a bunch of her pals decided to create a space for women that promoted and supported artwork created by women exclusively. And as Dotty has a metaphorical Midas’ touch, the gallery was a huge success and to this day promotes women in the arts. As you may have expected, men weren’t thrilled at the founding of such a place and legend has it that one man with especially bunched panties said, “Okay you did it. You found 20 good women artists. But that’s it.” Hopefully, this man later reflected on the patriarchy’s damaging effect on women and decided to be supportive of society’s pursuit of gender equality. But it doesn’t really matter because Attie didn’t give a hoot about the haters.

Attie was born in 1938 in Pennsauken, New Jersey, the home of the first drive-in movie theater! Unfortunately, this was the best thing about Attie’s hometown, so after college she packed her bags for the big city. She began A.I.R. Gallery and began to create works of her own, including replicas of photographs and paintings by Old Masters (Ingres, Caravaggio, Courbet, Eakins…all the usual suspects) arranged in grids and paired with texts. She uses them to comment on gender roles and whatever else she wants, because that’s what feminism is all about. She continues her activism, art and ass-kicking to this day. You go, Dotty!