Anonymous Was a Woman

Jae Ko | linn meyers | Joyce J. Scott | Renée Stout

On view at The Kreeger Museum October 16 - December 31, 2025

Pictured (left to right): Detail, linn meyers, The Moon is a Thief, 2025, acrylic ink and acrylic gouache on linen. Courtesy of the Artist. Detail, Jae Ko, Rhombus #3, 2025, rolled paper, pigmented ink. Courtesy of Opera Gallery/Artist. Detail, Joyce J. Scott, Untitled Fairy Tale from The Graphic Novel Series, 2019-2020, glass beads, thread, wire. Courtesy of Goya Contemporary Gallery/Artist. Detail, Renée Stout, I Trust My Third Eye, 2025, acrylic on panel. Courtesy of Marc Straus Gallery/Artist.

The Kreeger Museum is pleased to present Anonymous Was a Woman: Jae Ko | linn meyers | Joyce J. Scott | Renée Stout, opening on October 16, 2025. Curated by Dr. Vesela Sretenović, the exhibition will feature the recent work of Anonymous Was a Woman grant recipients and DMV-based artists Jae Ko, linn meyers, Joyce J. Scott, and Renée Stout.

 "It is an absolute honor to present this exhibition and celebrate these artists; we are thrilled to welcome Ko, meyers, Scott, and Stout back to our gallery spaces and commemorate their work and the Anonymous Was a Woman Grant program.” -Helen Chason, Director of The Kreeger Museum. 

Anonymous Was a Woman: Jae Ko | linn meyers | Joyce J. Scott | Renée Stout, dovetails with the recent group exhibition, Anonymous Was a Woman: The First 25 Years organized by and presented at the New York University’s Grey Art Museum, April 1-July 19, 2025, and co-curated by Nancy Princenthal and Vesela Sretenović.

The Grey exhibition celebrated the first quarter-century of the Anonymous Was a Woman (AWAW) grant program, established in 1996 by visionary philanthropist and artist Susan Unterberg. The program is dedicated to supporting mid-career women artists living and working in the United States. Its name refers to a phrase in Virginia Woolf’s essay A Room of One’s Own, which underscores the challenges that creative women have historically faced in a male-dominated society. 

The Kreeger Museum’s exhibition, curated by Sretenović, focuses exclusively on four AWAW recipients who reside and work in the Washington, DC metropolitan area: Jae Ko (AWAW 2012), linn meyers (AWAW 2023), Joyce J. Scott (AWAW 1997), and Renée Stout (AWAW 1999). While the Grey exhibition featured works created around the time of each artist’s award, The Kreeger Museum’s presentation spotlights the most recent work of its participating artists, picking up where the Grey show left off in 2020. Moreover, whereas the Grey offered a broader overview of artistic production by women-artists in the first 25 years of the award, The Kreeger Museum aims to present a more focused, in-depth look at the new works of Ko, meyers, Scott, and Stout.

In this respect, The Kreeger Museum’s exhibition not only celebrates artists based in the DMV area —aligning with the Museum’s mission—but also extends the reach of the AWAW program beyond New York City, further disseminating its mission: to support and bring greater visibility to the creative output of women artists.

FEATURED ARTISTS

Jae Ko (Korean American, b. Pyeongtaek-si, Korea; lives and works in Alexandria, VA and Piney Point, MD)

linn meyers (American, b. Washington, DC; lives and works in Washington, DC, New York, NY, and Los Angeles, CA)

Joyce J. Scott (American, b. Baltimore, MD; lives and works in Baltimore, MD)

Renée Stout (American, b. Junction City, KS; lives and works in Washington, DC)