Monica Sjöö’s Radical Feminist Goddesses
Anna Souter, Hyperallergic
January 2024
“God giving birth.” This phrase, which titles one of Monica Sjöö’s best-known and most controversial works, is written in red capitals across the bottom of the painting. The text, though enigmatic, is a bold challenge to gendered perceptions of divinity, labor, and creation. The androgynous, blank-eyed face both contrasts with and complements the feminine body, in which Sjöö accurately captures the appearance of a contracting uterus and breasts on the verge of lactation. […]