The women of Pop Art are still largely unfamiliar to many audiences. Power Up – Female Pop Art offers a long-overdue revision of Pop Art by highlighting outstanding female positions within the movement.

For artists such as Sister Corita, the world of signs, plastic packaging, and advertising slogans was not a cultural wasteland but a source of material for an art rooted in everyday life. Her work—like that of Evelyne Axell, Christa Dichgans, Rosalyn Drexler, Jann Haworth, Dorothy Iannone, Kiki Kogelnik, Marisol, and Niki de Saint Phalle—exemplifies strategies of female artistic empowerment during the era of Pop Art.

Playing with the imagery of pin-ups and consumer culture, these artists combine glamour, irony, and independence. Since the 1960s, themes such as female sexuality, pleasure, postwar prosperity, and politics have shaped their distinctive and powerful works. The spirit of Pop informs both the humor and the lightness with which these artists approach life and art.