The Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, now 35 years old, has consistently shown the work of innovative female artists. With over 40 works on view, dating from 1918 to 1968, the exhibition “18 Women: 50 Years” celebrates these artists. The mediums in the show are painting, sculpture, collage, assemblage, ceramic, and textiles, a number of which were once downgraded as “craft” by a patriarchal art world. The power of the work is undeniable and many pieces are not for the faint of heart. Magdalena Abakanowicz’s Cercle Clair (1971), a large circular hanging of saffron-colored woven jute, its slit-like central opening surrounded by a thicket of threads, reads like an abstract response to Gustave Courbet’s 1866 painting, Origin of the World. Lee Bontecou’s Untitled (1963), a wall sculpture made of welded steel and paint, might eat you alive. Other artists in the show include Ruth Asawa, Nancy Grossman, Louise Nevelson, Anne Ryan, Toshiko Takaezu, and Alma Thomas. —Laura Jacobs