Hannah Wilke (1940-93) was an American artist who developed a multifaceted practice that challenged dialogues around art and gender. 

Wilke first made her signature vaginal ceramic sculptures in the early 1960's, and throughout her life she created terracotta, porcelain and painted and glazed ceramic sculptures. Wilke is recognised as a pioneer of feminist art, though in her time her confrontational use of her own body and satire of glamour modelling sometimes put her at odds with the feminist community. The artist was among the first to explore “essentialist art”, tying the female experience to the image of the vagina, which she rendered in folded clay, hanging latex, kneaded erasers, chewed bubble gum, or rolled-up laundry lint and stuck to photographs, postcards, and her body by the dozens.