Getty Honors 40 Years of Guerrilla Girls Art and Activism

The Getty Center opened the How To Be A Guerrilla Girl exhibition Tuesday honoring the masked feminist group for their 40 years of activism

How To Be A Guerrilla Girl opened Tuesday at the Getty Center’s Research Institute Galleries, unveiling a suite of newly commissioned works by the anonymous activist collective in honor of their 40th anniversary.

These newly commissioned pieces appear alongside Getty’s extensive Guerrilla Girls archive, which includes posters, mass mailings, form letters, and other graphic ephemera tracing the group’s impact from its founding in 1985 through 2003.

The exhibition unfolds across five thematic sections, each examining the group’s sharp blend of art and activism. Visitors can also dive into areas devoted to data analysis and distribution strategies, revealing the behind-the-scenes tactics that helped the Guerrilla Girls gain momentum long before the age of social media.

On the collective’s website, the Guerrilla Girls highlight their history of provocative museum interventions: “We also do interventions and exhibitions at art museums, blasting them on their own walls for their bad behavior and discriminatory practices, including a stealth projection on the façade of the Whitney Museum about income inequality and the super rich hijacking art.”

While the Getty exhibition doesn’t feature a stealth projection, it offers plenty to discover.

“The Getty Research Institute is delighted to present this exhibition marking four decades of Guerrilla Girl art and activism,” says Andrew Perchuk, interim director of the Getty Research Institute. “The group’s archive allows us to understand the crucial role they have played in the art world and the strategic thinking and collective labor behind their most famous interventions, while introducing us to lesser-known aspects of the group’s practice.”

The exhibition runs through April 8, 2026. Throughout its duration, the Getty will host related programs, including a conversation with the Guerrilla Girls and Roxane Gay on January 17, a feminist Valentine’s Day mail-art workshop with the Feminist Center for Creative Work, Cocktails with the Curators, and a range of tours.