The National Gallery of Victoria has launched "Mother," an expansive exhibition featuring over 200 works that explore the complexities of motherhood. Curated by Sophie Gerhard and Katharina Prugger, the show draws from the NGV collection and new acquisitions to move beyond idealized religious icons like the Virgin Mary. The selection spans centuries and cultures, juxtaposing 19th-century sketches by Queen Victoria with contemporary First Nations birthing skirts and raw depictions of domestic labor and maternal exhaustion.
This exhibition matters because it challenges the historical erasure of maternal labor and the sanitization of the parenting experience in art history. By framing motherhood through the lens of "relentless" labor—physical, emotional, and creative—the curators highlight how the demands of child-rearing can both hinder and catalyze artistic production. It provides a necessary critical space to discuss the invisibility of caregivers and the visceral reality of birth and rest in a major institutional setting.