FARGO — In concerts, rock stars often urge the crowd to scream for them. So it was only natural that Guerrilla Girls — rock stars of the art world — would do the same when they came to the Plains Art Museum Thursday night.
Wearing their signature store-bought gorilla masks, the protest artists made their way through a sold-out crowd, throwing bananas on their way to podiums. From there, Frida Kahlo and Käthe Kollwitz — members adopt the names of deceased female artists to maintain anonymity — delivered a presentation on the group’s work and answered questions from the mostly female crowd.
“I think you all realize that you’re facing a really tough time in the United States right now. Institutions are being dismantled so quickly and rights guaranteed by our Constitution are disappearing. And who knows what will happen tomorrow?” Kollwitz said. “So, we think it’s great for us tonight to start out with one huge collective scream.”
Guerrilla Girls, a group of masked female artists and activists, discuss its iconic poster protesting lack of female representation in museums on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, at the Plains Art Museum in Fargo.
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
After a thunderous roar, she said she hoped their voices were heard all the way down to Minneapolis.
The group started in the mid-1980s by protesting museums that disproportionately showed white, male artists over female artists and artists of color. The group gathered attention for wearing masks at protests and using advertising techniques to create posters calling out issues like female representation in museums as depictions of nude women.
The Plains acknowledges that only 10.5 percent of the pieces in its permanent collection are by women artists.
“Over the years, we figured out a way — an in-your-face, unforgettable way — to break through people’s preconceptions and to prove that the art system isn’t always a meritocracy, where museums, galleries, critics and collectors know the best,” Kollwitz said. “Some people loved our work. Others can’t stand it. But from the very beginning, they couldn’t stop talking about it.”
“Our motto has always been, ‘Just do one thing.’ If it works, do enough. If it doesn’t work, do another thing,”Kahlo added. “Use your strength, your creativity, to change people’s minds. Keep fighting, don’t give up.”
Members of the Guerrilla Girls, a group of masked female artists and activists, hand out bananas as they enter the room ahead of their discussion of feminism and women in the world of art, on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, at the Plains Art Museum in Fargo.
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
The two discussed how their work has resonated around the world. They showed one large poster seen at a former military museum in Dresden, Germany, which is now a museum dedicated to peace.
“The world needs a new weapon. The estrogen bomb,” the poster reads. “Drop it on white supremacists, anti feminists, transphobes, ultra nationalists, religious fundamentalists, oligarchs, autocrats and warlords. They will throw down their big guns, they’ll hug each other, they’ll apologize and with all that estrogen, they will start to clean up the mess.”
“We don’t think there’s any reason not to use humor because you must tell somebody something in a different way and that really helps get their attention,” Kollwitz said. “If you make them laugh, you have a good chance of them really understanding and thinking further about what they saw.”
Opening the floor for questions, many asked about the masks and why anonymity is important to the Guerrilla Girls.
“It’s a great American tradition to be a masked avenger. So, in a way, you know, we’re carrying on with that. Besides, you can’t believe what comes out of your mouth when you wear a gorilla mask,” Kahlo said. “But I have to say the mask has been very helpful today in frigid Fargo. No cold noses.”
Frida Kahlo of Guerrilla Girls, a group of masked female artists and activists, discuss feminism and women in the world of art, on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, at the Plains Art Museum in Fargo.
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
When asked about starting regional chapters, Kahlo said people are better off doing their own thing.
“You don’t have to be a Guerrilla Girl to make protest posters,” she said. “I think we have to keep our own lives proper and well lived in this difficult time and to be models for what we would like the rest of the world to be.”
When someone asked about how to best channel their outrage into focused protest letting their emotions take over, Kahlo said imagination and resourcefulness can be key.
“It’s just such a great time now for just doing a lot of stealth stuff. When I look at some of the protests in the last few years, you’ll see that some of it is very creative,” she said.
“No matter what happens, you cannot stop artists from making art. And that is why we have a culture,” Kollwitz said. “Yeah, everyone isn’t going to be a superstar. But some of the greatest works, books, art, films, et cetera, are things that people didn’t even see when they were made. So we have to have the courage to keep going. I think that’s so important because everything, all of you are doing here, pushes that rock up a hill and means something to people who need art. Everyone needs art, and luckily, a lot of people really need to make it and won’t stop.”
For almost 30 years John Lamb has been covering arts and entertainment in the Red River Valley. He started writing for the High Plains Reader in 1997 and moved to The Forum in 2002. He is an Annenberg fellow, an occasional judge for talent shows and food contestants and co-hosts the weekly “Gardening Together: The Podcast.” He’s rubbed shoulders with Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain, drank with National Book Award winner Colm McCann, had coffee with Grammy-winning classical musician Peter Schickele and interviewed countless other artists, actors, musicians, writers and assorted interesting people. Contact John at jlamb@forumcomm.com.