13 women artists have contributed work to Trotter and Sholer gallery's show "A Suitable Accomplishment."
Anna Marie Tendler, Eggs Over Easy (2018). Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer, New York.
The questions of motherhood—whether to do it, how, when—is a major part of the female experience, and comes with enormous pressures related to the biological clock and societal expectations.
At New York’s Trotter and Sholer gallery, the varied ways that women artists respond to this question is the subject of its current group show, “A Suitable Accomplishment.”
The title is taken from the groundbreaking 1971 Linda Nochlin essay, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?,” which examined the social constructs that have kept women artists from receiving the same recognition as that of their male counterparts. (Spoiler alert: the demands of motherhood have sabotaged many a promising career.)
And though the essay is more than 50 years old, it speaks to issues women still face in the year 2023.
“A Suitable Accomplishment” on view at Trotter and Sholer. Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer.
“I’m not sure that we’ve progressed as far as we like to think we have,” gallery cofounder Jenna Ferrey told Artnet News. “And we definitely haven’t gone as far as we need to go!”
Ferrey focused the show on a small group of women artists whose differing experiences of motherhood painted a wide picture of the subject.
Barbara Ishikura, Jen (2022). Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer, New York.
For some artists, motherhood is a creative inspiration, as with Fernanda’s Feher’s watercolors, which were “art directed” by her two-year-old, who asks her to incorporate elements like toys, ice cream, and cupcakes into her delicate paintings.
Others reference multiple generations of women. One of Jessica Frances Grégoire Lancaster’s finely detailed paintings on glass is based on a drawing by her grandmother, with her mother’s reflection subtly included in the work to tie the three women together.
Bahar Behbahani, Untitled (Immigrant Flora) 2018. Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer, New York.
There’s even a mother-daughter duo, Shamsy Behbahani and Bahar Behbahani, whose works appear in the show.
“They created individual works, but they are in conversation with each other,” Ferrey said. “Bahar’s mother created a large hanging installation piece out of silver and copper thread which is hung so the light casts a shadow from Shamsy’s piece onto Bahar’s piece.”
Bahar Behbahani and Shamsy Behbahani, All the Sea for You All the Pain for Me (2022). Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer, New York.
The 13 featured artists in the show include both mothers and women who have decided not to have children of their own, as well as women who haven’t decided one way or another—a question that Ferrey, who has decided she does not want to have children, has grappled with herself.
“Its something that’s been on my mind lately, and it comes up in conversations with friends, both those who have children and those who are choosing not to,” Ferrey said. “But there’s social pressure no matter which position you take. And this is a conversation that almost probably every single woman could contribute something to.”
See what some of the women in the show had to say in their artist statements about the question of motherhood and how it relates to their work.
Fernanda Feher
Fernanda Feher, Lilyland (2022). Photo courtesy of Trotter and Sholer, New York.
“As an artist, who is a single parent most of the time, I find it challenging not being able to go work whenever inspiration comes, and it is difficult for inspiration to come when having no alone time, having to do so many things at the same time and carrying so much responsibility by myself,” Fernanda Feher said. The artist credited her “infantile universe of imagination,” saying, “I can easily join my child in her fantasy to play and welcome her into creating worlds with me such as the ones we painted and drew together for this exhibition.”