Artist Moms
Motherhood Becomes Fine Art In This Incredible Exhibition
Written by Erin Feher
Photography by Apsáalooke Feminist #2, Wallpaper, by Wendy Red Star, 2016
Feb 27, 2020
Telling us that motherhood is vital, creative, and mind-expanding work is a little like preaching to the choir. But as any woman working in the art world can tell you, motherhood has rarely been taken seriously as the subject of fine art, and in fact, female artists have long been advised to delay having children, or simply skip it all together if they hoped to be taken seriously as an artist. But the brand new University Art Museum (UAM) at New Mexico State University (NMSU) radically challenges that notion with Labor: Motherhood & Art in 2020. The stunning show opens on February 28, 2020 and confronts and challenges historic and contemporary ways mothers and mothering have been represented in both art and popular culture. It is the inaugural exhibition of the new institution, and its curators hope it sets the museum on a committed path to featuring significant works by leading female, LGBTQ, and other underrepresented artists. We spoke to co-curator Marisa Sage about everything from birthing a brand new museum to why mothers have long been discriminated against in the arts, and so much more. Read our full interview and get a first look at some of the exquisite, though-provoking artworks in the exhibition by clicking through the slideshow below.
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"Everything, one could say, begins with a mother, and this includes the inaugural exhibition in the University Art Museum, too. In 2016, the voters of New Mexico approved a $22.5 million general obligation bond to build a state-of-the-art visual arts facility to house the University Art Museum (UAM) and the Department of Art for New Mexico State University (NMSU). I instantly began thinking, how do you 'birth' a new institution? Having committed the UAM to a mission of featuring significant works by leading female, LGBTQ, and other underrepresented artists to more accurately reflect this diverse cultural and social community, I intended for this first exhibition to be another step towards diversification and equality within our exhibitions and collections going forward into the future at NMSU."
You Destroy Every Special Thing I Make, 4-channel video, painted canvas, wood and steel, by Joey Fauerso, 2019
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"I started off the curatorial process asking artists that we have worked with in the past to recommend artists working with the concept of motherhood who inspired them. Lenka Clayton created an Artist Residency In Motherhood(ARiM) that has inspired and activated over 900 mother artists from over 62 countries to make their own residencies and artworks in their homes. For this exhibition, Lenka created an installation and book project titled Mothers’ Days, which documents a day in the life of 88 ARiM artist-moms. I also flew to NY to visit artist studios, and it was at that point that I walked into MOTHER, a fall 2018 exhibition of photography and video co-curated by Laurel Nakadate and Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects in New York. I was floored by the show, and hoped that we could integrate the concepts Laurel and Leslie had explored in their exhibition into ours. I contacted Laurel to see if she would be open to co-curating a new iteration with me for NMSU. Building off MOTHER, we incorporated many of the artists who were originally shown in NY, but added painters, sculptors, installation artists, and performers, and expanded the show to include artists who were making mixed-media works that reframe motherhood within the context of artistic practice, using it as a source of inspiration, creation, and collaboration. This iteration of the exhibition opens with the feminist artist Mary Kelly’s work Antepartum, a 1973 prologue to her famous Post-Partum Document, which validated the research of maternity and motherhood in the field of contemporary art and began a forty-year-long discussion about the roles institutions play in exposing or hiding artworks addressing women's dual labor as artists and mothers. We believe that by providing a glimpse into the past, present, and future perspectives of women artists redefining the field, we foster an expanded forum for conversations on motherhood to take place within the educational environment of NMSU, and for all members of this community to question what it means to support artists and mothers in 2020."
MotherLove, Hand knit textiles, hand woven rug, wooden frame, by Las Hermanas Iglesias, 2019
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- Frame 20, Type C print, by Tierney Gearon, 2007
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"I have been shocked when having conversations with various artist throughout this exhibition by how much bias there is against mothering in the art world. Many artists told me they did not inform their dealers that they were pregnant because they feared they would drop them or cancel an exhibition. I spoke to other artists who were told by female professors that they should not have children until after they had their first solo exhibition because they would not be taken seriously as artist, or to not create work about motherhood because it was not considered 'research' or high art material to explore. What art is not a form of self-portraiture or political commentary? Whoever asked a man how was he going to continue making work after he had a child? Luckily, I believe institutions like ours are starting to understand the significance of having these urgent conversations, and we are creating safe spaces that support women artists in broadening the conversation and investigations into motherhood. Especially in educational museums, we value the voices of mothers and support motherhood as a creative material to investigate, rather than an impediment to overcome."
Virgin & Child I, Mixed-media on canvas, by Maria Berrio, 2014
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- You Destroy Every Special Thing I Make, 4-channel video, painted canvas, wood and steel, by Joey Fauerso, 2019
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"I think in general women do not speak enough about the difficulties of childbirth, and do not share their stories for fear of not being taken seriously as either an artist or mother, and the potential feeling of being judged as a failure at both. I think the works in this exhibition that explore those fears most acutely are the works of Amy Cutler and Kate Gilmore. For Cutler, she paints metaphorically about the difficult realities of childbirth after an emergency C-section with her first child and her unsuccessful struggle to breastfeed. Through the use of allegory, she explores the feelings of being simultaneously encouraged and judged by other women, and her work speaks to a disorientating time as she navigates through her new identity as a mother with humor, fear, pain, tenderness, narrative, and symbolism. Gilmore speaks to the potential pitfalls and failures implicit in being an artist and mother, and the constant need many women feel to compartmentalize their experiences when fighting against stereotypical roles placed on women in the art world. With many artist like Gimore and Cutler, it’s not that they are avoiding the subject, rather they need galleries and museums that support their works and make it an imperative to share their voices and stories with the mainstream viewing public."
Stampede, Gouache on paper, by Amy Cutler, 2013
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- Apsáalooke Feminist #2, Wallpaper, by Wendy Red Star, 2016
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"Many of the artists I have encountered over the past two years of co-curating this exhibition have found the actuality of creating life and keeping a person alive to be the most valuable source of creative and personal development, focus, and growth imaginable. Many mother artists speak to becoming masters of time management, creating the most concentrated and concise works of their artistic practice, and allowing their works to explore new emotional depths. When I asked one of my fellow curator mothers how she was able to juggle the plethora of work-based and mother-based hats she said 'You grow new arteries in your heart and you learn to love more than you could ever imagine, and that allows you to make it all work.' Making it all work is an art form I hope to learn."
The Kingdom #2, Type C print, by Laurel Nakadate, 2018
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- Installation, Paint, linen, ceramic and glaze, by Jessica Jackson Hutchins, 2020
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"I would say that one of the seismic shifts is the perception in both academic settings and the mainstream artworld that the act of making artwork as a women inspired by motherhood is rigorous, marketable, feminist, and unapologetically empathetic. By providing women with a platform to construct their works in their voice, and space to control the narrative, you allow these women to inspire and inform other artists, mothers, and daughters, about the realities of being a mother in 2020 and the need for support. Like numerous museums globally, whether purposeful or unintended, our collection here at NMSU presents a relatively heavy male perspective of motherhood. When curating for 'Labor,' special care was given to highlight the rare examples of the maternal experience by leading feminist, queer, and diverse artists present within the collection. These works reflect a nuanced art historical vision of motherhood, and throughout our space, we worked to show intergenerational discussions of artistic practice and research as it related to the visions of motherhood and parenting in the 20th and 21st centuries. While we might not all choose to become mothers or parents, we all come from a mother, so this is a concept we can all relate to. I think just understanding this simple concept is a shift. Lastly, I also believe the discussion around the idea of choice, biological mothering, reproductive rights, and loss, are also being exposed along side the joys and everyday humor that exists within this topic."
Wild Palms, C-print, by Justine Kurland, 2006
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If you are in New Mexico, be sure to check out Labor: Motherhood & Art in 2020, running from February 28, 2020 until May 28, 2020 at University Art Museum at New Mexico State University.
Daren Meets His Birth Family For The First Time, Vintage Type C print, by Tracey Baran, 2003
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