Miriam Schapiro is a leader in the feminist art movement.

Miriam Schapiro was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1923. She was the only child of her two Russian-Jewish parents. Schapiro’s father was an artist and intellectual who was studying at Beaux-Arts Institute of Design when Schapiro was born. Her mother was a homemaker and always encouraged Schapiro to take up a career in the arts and because of this, Schapiro began drawing at the age of six.

During the Great Depression, Schapiro and her parents moved to Brooklyn where she began taking art classes at the Museum of Modern Art. After graduating high school, Schapiro attended the University of Iowa where she earned her Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate by 1949.

In 1959, after the birth of her son, Schapiro began her career as a full-time artist. She became fascinated with Abstract Expressionists and drew a lot of inspiration from there. In 1967, after moving to California with her family, Schapiro became one of the first artists to use a computer to create her artwork. Her most famous work of this time is OX, which is a large pink and orange O with an X crossing through the middle, resulting in a vaginal opening.

Schapiro became one of the most important female artists in the 1970s, and in 1971, Schapiro and fellow feminist artist Judy Chicago co-founded the first feminist art program at the California Institute of the Arts.

The Institute's first project was Womanhouse.

Womanhouse is an installation piece inside of an old rundown Hollywood house rented by Chicago and Shapiro. The artists redesigned the interior and essentially sought out to reveal the female experience — the dreams and fantasies of women as they sewed, cooked, washed, and ironed away their lives.

Shapiro’s work was well received by the community and effectively launched what is known today as “Feminist Art.”

Shapiro’s subject matter is very personal. Shapiro’s art is full of color and wild patterns and would fit best under the style Rococo if it were not for the deeper meaning behind all of her works. When looking at Shapiro’s work, the onlooker can see a story within the patterns and colors that explode from the work. An example of this is when she took a pinkish colored doily and sewed it up to appear like a vagina.

To check out more of Woman House by Miriam Schapiro and Judy Chicago.