Ruby City will open Generative Disruption: Feminist Art from the Collection on Saturday, September 26, 2026. Featuring work by 33 artists, the exhibition explores how feminist artistic practices have influenced contemporary art through themes of the body, identity, gender, power, belonging, and lived experience.
On view through August 29, 2027, Generative Disruption draws largely from the Linda Pace Foundation Collection. The exhibition considers how ideas and artistic strategies introduced by feminist artists beginning in the 1960s and 1970s continue to shape artists’ work today.
Opening day will begin with a gallery walkthrough from 2–3 p.m. led by Ruby City Director Elyse A. Gonzales. Several participating artists will join Gonzales to discuss their work, practices, and perspectives. The walkthrough will be followed by a public opening reception beginning at 3 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.
Rather than presenting a historical survey, Generative Disruption brings together works from the 1990s to the present to trace the continuing influence of earlier feminist artistic practices. The exhibition reflects a foundational principle of the Linda Pace Foundation Collection: recognizing women artists and the significance of their contributions to contemporary art.
“Feminist art fundamentally expanded what contemporary art could be,” Gonzales said. “Artists challenged assumptions about whose experiences were worthy of representation, what subjects could be addressed through art, and what materials and approaches could constitute an artistic practice.”
At the center of the exhibition are artists who use their personal experiences and perspectives to examine the world around them. Feminist artists have long explored bodies, domestic spaces, sexuality, identity, social expectations, and systems of power. Their work helped create space for today’s artists to address race, ethnicity, sexuality, social justice, bodily autonomy and other dimensions of lived experience.
The featured artists represent a range of generations, geographic locations, identities and artistic media. San Antonio artists Trish Simonite and Janet Lennie Flohr are included alongside national and international artists such as Wangechi Mutu, Sue Williams, Nicole Eisenman, Nao Bustamante, Mona Hatoum, Shahzia Sikander, Tracey Moffatt, Miwa Yanagi, Aïda Ruilova, Annette Messager, Olga de Amaral, Emily Jacir, Wu Tsang, Sama Alshaibi and Anya Gallaccio.
A small selection of work by male artists demonstrates how feminist thinking extends beyond a single gender. These works examine gender roles, identity, social expectations, and injustice through related materials and creative processes.
Miwa Yanagi, Yuka from My Grandmothers, 2000, chromogenic print mounted on aluminum, 63 x 63 in., Linda Pace Foundation Collection, Ruby City, San Antonio, Texas; 2007.1.519.
Among the exhibition’s notable works is the late Laura Aguilar’s Stillness series, which was commissioned and produced by Artpace San Antonio. In these intimate black-and-white photographs, Aguilar places her body within the South Texas landscape, creating a relationship between the figure and the environment that moves beyond conventional ideals of the female body and beauty.
San Antonio artist Janet Lennie Flohr is represented by No Work Zone, a photogravure that considers labor, time, impermanence, and the tension between construction and decay.
International perspectives are also central to the exhibition. Wangechi Mutu’s Histology of the Different Classes of Uterine Tumors reimagines clinical images of female anatomy through surreal, hybrid forms that challenge historically sexist and racist representations of the body. Shahzia Sikander’s Played Ground brings contemporary imagery into conversation with miniature painting traditions, while Miwa Yanagi’s My Grandmothers explores women’s imagined futures through staged photographic portraits.
The exhibition also features works on loan, including Trigger Planting 3.0 by Kadambari Baxi, Maureen Connor and Landon Newton. The piece maps abortion restrictions across the United States through dried plants and herbs historically associated with contraception and abortion. It connects current conversations about bodily autonomy to longer histories of medicine, knowledge and women’s agency.
Textiles, embroidery, found objects, photography, painting, printmaking, sculpture and video are represented throughout the exhibition. Together, these materials demonstrate how feminist artists challenged traditional ideas about what belonged in museums and galleries. Practices once dismissed as domestic or outside the conventions of fine art became powerful forms of creative expression and critical inquiry.
This expansion of artistic possibility connects closely with the vision of Ruby City founder Linda Pace, an artist, collector and philanthropist who believed contemporary art was essential to a dynamic society. Ruby City continues that vision by making contemporary art freely accessible to the community.
“Linda Pace believed in sharing contemporary art with others,” Gonzales said. “That generosity remains at the heart of Ruby City. This exhibition is an invitation to encounter artists whose work has helped shape the field of contemporary art today.”
Some works in Generative Disruption include nudity and address sexuality, abortion and violence. Throughout the exhibition’s year-long run, Ruby City will offer free public programs exploring feminism, identity, belonging, place, ritual, objects and the reclaiming of narratives. Programming will include films, music, conversations, workshops and other opportunities to engage with the exhibition’s themes beyond the galleries.
Opening Day Details
Saturday, September 26, 2026
2–3 p.m.: Gallery walkthrough with Ruby City Director Elyse A. Gonzales and participating artists
3 p.m. onward: Public opening reception
Location: Ruby City, San Antonio, Texas
Admission: Free and open to the public
Generative Disruption: Feminist Art from the Collection will remain on view through August 29, 2027.
Ruby City is a contemporary art center founded by artist, collector and philanthropist Linda Pace. Designed by Adjaye Associates, the center opened to the public in 2019 and presents exhibitions, programs and works from the Linda Pace Foundation Collection free of charge.
