At the time , SOHO20 also placed greater emphasis on exhibitions that exposed relevant social and political issues . In 1985 , '' Private Gone Public '' attempted to reveal how artists " formulate a private view of life , environment , the world , into a comprehensible visual symbology . " The exhibition included works by May Stevens , Howardena Pindell , Sue Coe , Erika Rothenberg , Nancy Spero , and Bonnie Lucas — " six ' gut issue ' artists , " as described by Grace Glueck in '' The New York Times '' . In 1989 , '' South African Mail : Messages from Inside '' consisted of more than 400 works by 200 artists from South Africa , conceived as a form of resistance against apartheid . The exhibition was curated by Janet Goldner with funding from the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid . An exhibition in 1990 , curated by Faith Ringgold , was made as a tribute to the civil rights workers killed in Mississippi in 1964 , and featured works by six African-American women artists , including Beverly Buchanan , Joyce J. Scott , and Clarissa Sligh . SOHO20 was also among the many arts organizations that responded to concerns over censorship and attempts to defund the National Endowment for the Arts in 1989 , which followed the widely publicized controversies around exhibitions of works by Andres Serrano and Robert Mapplethorpe . '' Blacklisted/Whitewashed/Red Handed '' ( 1990 ) addressed issues of censorship , funding restrictions , and 1st Amendment rights through the works of SOHO20 artists and artist-interns from Washington Irving High School . Also in 1990 , SOHO20 partnered with the Organization of Pan Asian American Women to present an art auction of works by Asian artists to benefit the New York Asian Women 's Center ( now known as Womankind ) , which serves the survivors of human trafficking , sexual and domestic violence , and later-in-life abuse . In 1994 , SOHO20 hosted an invitational exhibition called '' Effect or Infect : Art and Ecology '' , which addressed the state of world ecology
civil rights workers killed in Mississippi
Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner
Soho20 Chelsea