Femicide Exhibition
3 September to 24 October 2025 at Shiva Gallery, NEW YorK City
curated by Thalia Vrachopoulos
The Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery at John Jay College of Criminal Justice is proud to announce its Fall 2025 exhibition, Femicide, on view from September 3 until October 24 2025, celebrated with an opening reception on Wednesday September 3rd, 2025 from 5-7:30PM. Curated by Thalia Vrachopoulos, this urgent and timely exhibition confronts the global epidemic of gender-based violence, giving voice to a crisis that demands cultural reckoning and systemic change.
According to a 2024 report by the United Nations, an average of 140 women per day are killed by intimate partners or family members—a staggering figure that equates to one life lost every ten minutes. Femicide responds to this grim statistic by assembling the works of artists –– including Roya Amigh, Isabella Baraona, Natali Bravo-Barbee, Yiannis Christakos, Eli Chrysidou, Donna Ferrato, Maria Karametou, Fay Ku, Hayoon Jay Lee, Cyriaco Lopes, Arlene Love, Despo Magoni, Nefeli Massia, Emma McGagg, Elise Rasmussen, Mary Ting, Lydia Venieri, and Alison Whitmore. These are artists whose practices engage with the realities and repercussions of violence against women, transwomen, and nonbinary individuals.
Through commemorative portraits, sculptures, acts of visual mapping, and forensic reconstructions, the exhibition presents a range of perspectives that make visible what is often rendered invisible. The artists’ works serve as powerful tools of memory, mourning, resistance, and transformation—inviting viewers to reflect deeply on the lived experiences behind the data.
"This exhibition does more than raise awareness—it offers a prismatic view of a global crisis and suggests cultural and structural alternatives for a safer future,” says curator Thalia Vrachopoulos. “By engaging with the emotional, aesthetic, and political dimensions of gender-based violence, these artists expand our understanding of justice, grief, and change."
Killed Women
Emma Cauldwell murdered 2005
The UK Femicide Census for 2020, read in the House of Commons on International Women's Day 2021 was chilling, with 118 women having been killed by men in Britain that year alone. This led me to explore victim representation in the media. . In most cases far more is written about the killers, than victims, their images remaining prominent throughout the criminal justice process.
Kulsuma Akter murdered 2024
It became important to redress this by making embroidered portraits which respectfully contemplate each killed woman equally, representing them beautifully, alongside the stark facts of each killing.
Victoria Hall murdered 1999
This series of six embroideries on vintage handkerchiefs represents and memorialises women for whom justice has been denied in some way or significantly delayed. The handkerchief speaks of the grief of victims’ loved ones.
Alison Whitmore, 2025