Salon #80 — Ashima Yadava and Philo Cohen of Speciwomen

Please join 10×10 Photobooks for a Photobook Salon at the Magnum Foundation with Ashima Yadava and Philo Cohen of Speciewomen.

Ashima Yadava is a conceptual documentary photographer and curator. She works on long-form stories focusing on issues of gender equality and racial justice and believes in art as a means to social activism and reform. Born in New Delhi and based in San Francisco, her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the de Young Museum, the Rotterdam Photo Festival, the United Nations and ICP, New York. Ashima is an inaugural fellow of the California Arts Council and the founder of Huq: I Seek No Favor.

Huq: I Seek No Favor brings together voices of over 100 artists, writers and thinkers in a collective response to the abortion ban. Overcome with anger and disbelief, Yadava divided the 213-page U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs opinion into sections and invited a diverse group of artists to create art out of them. Rooted in defiance and multicultural solidarity,  Huq calls for ongoing resistance and empowerment in the face of a system that perpetuates historical inequities and seeks to use women’s bodies as a tool of their oppression.

Philo Cohen is a publisher, researcher and creative consultant. She is the founder and director of Speciwomen, an independent arts non-profit dedicated to shifting representation in the arts by providing space, time, and resources to womxn artists. Through publications, exhibitions, and an artist residency project run out of her apartment in New York, she fosters the development of impactful and long-lasting support for artists. Cohen has participated in public programming and conversations globally, including events at the Whitney Museum, Centre Georges Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo, and TEDx conferences. 

Speciwomen is a non-profit arts organization committed to giving space to women and LGBTQIA+ artists for retreat, research and making. We seek to challenge existing norms, promote inclusivity, and contribute to a more equitable representation of marginalized voices in the arts landscape. Philo Cohen started Speciwomen in 2015, aiming to foster safer and wider spaces for womxn artists to be recognized and heard.

Magnet is a funded artist-in-residence program hosted by Speciwomen welcoming artists from outside of New York to spend time and make work in the city. Our headquarters are set up as a home and research center based in lower Manhattan. Each artist will have access to a shared live-in space, the Speciwomen Library and a private studio space for the duration of the residency.