‘Grrrl Germs’ explores how Riot Grrrl movement spread in O.C. and beyond at Great Park Gallery
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When cellphones were a novelty, and the internet was in its infancy, a community of punk feminists formed the decidedly analogue Riot Grrrl movement in the Pacific Northwest and, over time, their DIY influence spread around the world.
They transmitted their anti-sexist messages on hand-drawn paper zines, posters, handbills, compact discs, vinyl and, at times, homemade cassettes.
It was remarkable, especially at a time, the early 1990s, when “going viral” referred to the flu.
The movement’s rapid spread is at the center of “Grrrl Germs: Punk feminism goes viral, 1991–2026” on view through Nov. 29 at the Great Park Gallery in Irvine.
The exhibition’s title is inspired by the song and fanzine “Girl Germs” from the band Bratmobile and presented by Daisy Chain Fields with C3 Presents and the city of Irvine, with support by Loewe. “Grrrl Germs” coincided with the all-female, single-day music festival founded by Olivia Rodrigo last month and was one of several female-focused art installations on display.
Curated by Astria Suparak, the show explores the energy and independent spirit of the Riot Grrrl movement through music, handmade fliers and zines. Suparak, who attended Riot Grrrl meetings in the ‘90s as a teenager in Los Angeles, compiled materials from six continents, across 35 years for “Grrrl Germs.”
“There are cut-and-paste paper fliers from the early-1990s next to digitally-designed graphics made for Instagram and hand-drawn figures next to minimalist geometric designs,” Suparak, who now lives and works in Oakland, said.
But while styles, aesthetics and technological applications vary, the content remains remarkably similar, regardless of where they originated.
“What ties these diverse materials together is a shared fight against oppression and the collective desire to build creative and safer communities,” Suparak said. “You’ll see universal concerns throughout, like events fundraising for victims of gender-based violence in Orange, Calif., to South Africa to Kazakhstan. You’ll see posters for an exhibition advocating for female agricultural workers in the Philippines and a collective protest to the president’s declaration of martial law in South Korea.”
While Riot Grrrl is sometimes regarded only as a musical genre, the core tenets of the movement — challenging the patriarchy and making room for women in punk rock and other male-dominated spaces — fueled the music and its message.
A playlist of songs from around the globe vibrates through the gallery’s speakers, and a set of colored blinking lights identifies which part of the world the song came from.
“I wanted to dispel the myth that Riot Grrrls were only white women from the Pacific Northwest in the early 1990s,” said Suparak. “Not only were there Riot Grrrls of color across the U.S., but the exhibition shows how truly global the movement and its impact have been, with materials from over 30 countries on display.”
The color system continues through the exhibit with five listening stations, shrouded in sheer curtains, each a specific color designated for a continent. The stations are equipped with headphones and a video screen, featuring music videos, performance documentation, album covers and photos.
“If you go into the blue area in the gallery and listen to bands from Asia that identify as Riot Grrrl, or influenced by Riot Grrrl, you can look through the sheer blue curtains and see blue shapes on the walls highlighting fliers from feminist punk events across Asia,” Suparak explained.
The exhibition also includes a large, color-coded world map on the gallery’s middle wall, which Suparak notes is intentionally not the standard Mercator projection that inaccurately inflates the size of North America and Europe. The map spotlights Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America.
An interactive version of the map, tracking how Riot Grrrl spread geographically over time, appears in video form. Suparak began the initial research for the map while co-curating “Alien She,” an exhibition on Riot Grrrl’s impact on contemporary visual artists that came to the Orange County Museum of Art in 2015.
“As I began researching anew for Grrrl Germs, I updated the map with my findings, including Ladyfests, which grew out of Riot Grrrl, 10 additional countries and present-day chapters and activities,” Suparak said. “People can also visit it online, which includes instructions for how to submit a missing chapter or festival.”
O.C.’s movement is also documented.
“In Orange County, I found or heard of at least five Riot Grrrl chapters from 1992, which met at UC Irvine and nearby coffee shops, to 2012 with Grrl Fair in Santa Ana,” Suparak said.
Posters and fliers advertising workshops and community-building events feature a show organized by Riot Grrrl O.C. benefiting Rape Crisis O.C. at the YWCA in Orange and a Voices Against Oppression event featuring the Black Panthers and Riot Grrrl O.C. at Koos Cafe in Santa Ana.
Irvine’s Emily’s Sassy Lime, The Potential Lunatics from Long Beach and The Linda Lindas from Los Angeles are among the local bands feature in the exhibit.
Suparak hopes visitors will come away with an understanding that Riot Grrrl is more than a style or aesthetic.
“I hope it helps expand what the idea of what, who, and where Riot Grrrl is, was, and can be.”
“Grrrl Germs: Punk feminism goes viral, 1991–2026” is on view through Nov. 29 at the Great Park Gallery, 8000 Great Park Blvd. in Irvine. Admission is free. For hours of operation, visit cityofirvine.org.
