Cells and Love

Cells and Love invites all viewers, regardless of gender or parental status, into an intimate exploration of one of the most profound human experiences: becoming a mother. Bringing together the work of contemporary artist-mothers working across painting, sculpture, installation, video, performance, and textiles, the exhibition explores how motherhood intersects with artistic creation. At the heart of Cells and Love lies a set of dualities: creation and separation, self and other, autonomy and responsibility. These are not exclusively maternal dilemmas, they are human ones, but through the lens of motherhood, they gain new depth and urgency.

The transition into motherhood, matrescence, is often likened to adolescence for its emotional and physical intensity. It is disorienting, expansive, raw. It reshapes identity, time, and even the body. And yet, dominant cultural narratives continue to frame motherhood in narrow, idealised terms: perfection, sacrifice, silence. Cells and Love pushes back against those expectations, offering work that reflects the full spectrum of maternal experience, tenderness and rage, joy and fatigue, connection and loss.

Rather than presenting motherhood as a fixed role or identity, this exhibition embraces it as a lived, evolving process. For some artists, this means working with new materials, gestures, or rhythms; for others, it means confronting the pressure to choose between making art and raising children. In every case, the maternal becomes not a theme, but a force, one that transforms practice, perception, and production.

We believe these questions resonate far beyond parenthood. In a world where the labour of care is both essential and undervalued, Cells and Love opens a space to reflect on how we understand creation, responsibility, and identity. It speaks not only to mothering, but to what it means to care, for others, for ourselves, and for the fragile worlds we inhabit.

This exhibition blurs the boundaries between art and life, between the studio and the nursery, between play and practice. It unfolds in the murky, generative terrain where motherhood and creativity meet, spaces often overlooked or dismissed. Here, we make them visible.

The seed for Cells and Love was planted during a series of book club sessions for artist-mothers. Most of them first met there, coming together around the shared need for space, conversation, and care. The book that catalysed their dialogue was Matrescence by Lucy Jones, which explores the profound emotional, physical, and psychological transformations women undergo in becoming mothers. What began as a discussion evolved into a shared desire: to create an exhibition that could hold the complexity of these changes, and to support one another through the dual labour of art-making and mothering.

Core members include Farnaz Gholami, Gal Leshem, and Michal Raz. Recognising the need for a curatorial voice attuned to both the politics of care and the contemporary art landscape, the artists invited Paola Lucente to join the project and curate the exhibition. Paola is an independent curator based in London, with over 20 years of experience and a deep understanding of feminist art histories, interdisciplinary practice, and collaborative methodologies. She amplified the debate by inviting more artists to exhibit along the original cohort, aligning with, and celebrating, the ethos of the group.