From February 14 to April 12, 2026, the gallery in the Old Town Hall in Prien will present the exhibition Not Nice Girls. The female gaze in photographs from the SpallArt collection. The title refers to a quote by American photographer Berenice Abbott, who sought her motifs in the streets of New York's Lower East Side in the 1930s and decisively rejected social conventions: "I'm not a nice girl. I'm a photographer." Based on this self-confident attitude, the exhibition focuses on female photographers who have had a decisive influence on photography in a discipline long dominated by men and have asserted their place behind the camera. Over 200 works from the SpallArt collection span a period from the early pioneers of photography to contemporary positions. Portraits, landscape photographs, photomontages, and experimental art photographs document the diversity of female perspectives. Photographers such as Inge Morath, Vivian Maier, Lisette Model, Cindy Sherman, Beate Passow, and others offer a profound look at identity, self-reflection, and change, as well as a precise observation of scientific processes, urban life, and interpersonal encounters.
In Not Nice Girls, female and male positions meet on equal terms and enter into a fascinating dialogue. The juxtaposition reveals similarities as well as differences and invites us to compare how women and men perceive and interpret the world. Photography appears as an individual result – independent of gender, but sensitive to its influence.
Curated by Ute Gladigau
