Cheri Gaulke

Cheri Gaulke (b. 1954) is an artist whose performance work sits at the heart of the feminist art movement in Los Angeles. Trained at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, she moved to LA in 1975 to join the Feminist Studio Workshop at the Woman's Building, where she studied with Suzanne Lacy and embraced the idea that feminist art could raise consciousness and transform culture. Working primarily in performance from 1974 to 1992, Gaulke addressed religion, sexual identity, the body, and the environment, and co-founded two influential collaborative groups: Feminist Art Workers (1976–81), which fused feminist education techniques with participatory performance in streets, galleries, and protest rallies, and Sisters Of Survival (1981–85), an anti-nuclear group whose members wore nuns' habits in the colors of the rainbow while networking with peace activists across North America and Europe. With her partner Sue Maberry, whom she met at the Woman's Building, she famously engineered the hoisting of Kate Millett's giant Naked Lady sculpture onto the building's roof. Her work was featured in the Getty's Pacific Standard Time exhibitions at Otis and LACE, and she has since worked extensively in video, artists' books, and public art, alongside a celebrated career as an arts educator.