WOMEN IN NEON: PART I

Museum of Neon Art, Los Angeles CA
September 2017 - February 2018

She Bends: Women in Neon was the inaugural exhibition that launched She Bends as a curatorial and community-building platform. Organized at the Museum of Neon Art in Glendale, the exhibition emerged from a desire to create visibility, connection, and shared space for women who were actively making neon art with their own hands—work that had long existed on the margins of both the commercial sign industry and contemporary art discourse.

Curated by Meryl Pataky, the exhibition brought together artists working across sculptural, text-based, and spatial practices, foregrounding neon as a medium shaped by skill, labor, and lived experience. More than a survey, the exhibition functioned as a catalyst—establishing a network of artists, educators, and studios invested in sustaining and evolving the craft through mutual support, teaching, and collaboration.

The success of She Bends: Women in Neon laid the groundwork for subsequent exhibitions, residencies, and public programs across the United States, marking the beginning of She Bends as both a curatorial initiative and a growing community dedicated to stewarding neon as a living lineage.