MOTHERSHIP

About

You are warmly invited to the preview of the MOTHERSHIP exhibition on Thursday​ 1st​ December 2016, 6-9pm. Drinks kindly supplied by Kew Brewery and Trina’s Wines. Generously hosted by Leon Malhommede de la Roche at The Sawmills. Curated by Elizabeth Byrne & Caro Halford. Please RSVP by email.

The mother artist is a ​significant artistic position yet still remains an area within ​the visual ​art​s​ that is often undervalued and underexplored. MOTHERSHIP is a group exhibition that presents works by artists at varying stages of their careers, celebrating their shared connection of being mothers alongside their individual artistic practices in drawing, film, installation, painting, performance, photography, print, sculpture and sound

Being a female artist let alone a mother in the art world is notoriously unbalanced, with the upper echelons dominated by men and the gender pay gap between male versus female ​living ​artists being very apparent, with the top 10 living richest visual artists in the world still being all male. Does this gender pay gap represent the period when a mother artist has a career break? Seemingly the role of a mother is a form of labour perhaps not valued highly enough or considered an important process that ultimately informs the work and the artist.

Through this exhibition we are actively celebrating the role of a mother artist, recognising the huge commitment, courage, organisation and resilience often required. Whilst also calling for this unique crossover to be recognised and valued for the positive influence it brings. The works on display by our fourteen artists represent numerous explorations, some directly about motherhood, others exploring different concerns. What binds them all is the place they have come from and the challenges these artists have faced in order to realise the work they make.