ORONO – In 1985, an exhibition titled “An International Survey of Painting and Sculpture” opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The show was intended to represent the most significant contemporary art of the time.

Of the 196 artists featured, only 13 were women, none was African-American, and all were from the United States or Europe. The seeming lack of diversity was not lost on a group of female artists in New York, who joined forces and formed the Guerrilla Girls.

The Guerrilla Girls, whose members wear gorilla masks and have taken the names of dead female artists as pseudonyms, have made it their mission to take on sexism and discrimination in the art world and beyond. Through their myriad posters, billboards, books, stickers and other actions, they have sought to expose hypocrisy and bias in the visual art world, film, music industry – culture at large.

The activist artists will speak about their crusade at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5, in Room 100 of the Donald P. Corbett Business Building on the University of Maine campus. The talk is sponsored in part by UM’s Student Women’s Association. Teal Rancourt, co-chair of SWA, was instrumental in bringing the group to Orono.

“I am very excited to have them come to UMaine and share their work with us,” said Rancourt in an e-mail. “As a studio art major with a minor in women’s studies, I’m very interested in things that bridge those two topics. The Guerrilla Girls are a fantastic example of an active, feminist, very public group that brings up the inequalities women face, particularly in the art world and in politics.”

One of the Guerrilla Girls’ most famous displays is “The Anatomically Correct Oscar Billboard,” which was displayed in Hollywood and broadcasts the fact that only 3 percent of the film industry’s directors are women, 94 percent of all screenwriting awards have gone to men, and a woman has never won the Best Director Academy Award.

“The Guerrilla Girls are known for using humor and sarcasm in their work to make people see what’s wrong with the situation women and women artists face,” Rancourt continued. “I really enjoy the Guerrilla Girls’ style of making their point: often plastering a street or museum with their posters and comments that get attention. It is loud yet clever.”

The talk is free and open to the public, though donations will be accepted. For information, contact the Student Women’s Association at 581-1510.