Portraits of Care: Artists Honoring Mothers and Grandmothers
Melannie Chard
May 10, 2026
RICHARD LEWIS, Mommie in (Ma) Dear's Chair, 2026 | Photograph
The Artist’s Mother
Today, on Mother's Day, I thought I would highlight artists who honor the women who care for us. Our mother figures, often sit at the center of family and creative histories alike. They teach us attention, kindness, resilience, storytelling, and care. Even when they are not directly visible, their presence remains with us, their lessons a guidebook for navigating life.
The works gathered here approach motherhood from different places. Some are intimate portraits. Others move through memory, landscape, or inherited experience. It's just images today, not a lot of writing but I think that together, they feel connected by a shared understanding that family history is never static and continues to shape our present.
RASHAUN RUCKER, A Soft Reminder, 2023 | Mixed media, 3 × 3 inches
The Artist’s Grandmother
SENGHOR REID, The Ruling Class (Shirley Woodson), 2021 | Color serigraph on Stonehenge natural paper, 30 × 22 inches
A Portrait of the Artist’s Mother
RASHAUN RUCKER, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, 2023 | Baptismal font, lenticular print and mixed media, 34 × 24 inches
The Artist and His Mother, in the collection of the Flint Institute of Art
SYDNEY G. JAMES, Live, Love, Leer, 2025 | Graphite and charcoal on watercolor paper, 36 × 24 inches
RICHARD LEWIS, My Mother, 2026 | Gouache on watercolor paper, 12 × 16 inches
A Portrait of the Artist's Mother
DINO VALDEZ, Flowers in View, 2025 | Aerosol and PLA carbon fiber, mounted to cradled wood panel, 8 ½ × 6 ½ inches each
A Portrait of the Artist's Mother’s Garden
ROXY EATON, Billy, 2026 | Oil on panel, 24 × 18 inches
A Portrait of the Artist's Grandmother from a 1960's playbill.
JOSHUA RAINER, Blessed Quietness (Nannie), 2023 | Oil on canvas, 60 × 36 inches
A Portrait of the Artist's Grandmother
Happy Mother's Day to all the women who are mothers, who have lost mothers and who bring a mother's care to the people in their life, regardless of how they came to you. Thank you for your love.
OPENING FRIDAY
TAURUS BURNS
Zebra Intelligence
Reception Friday, May 15th | 6 - 9 PM
On view through June 13th
Taurus Burns' second solo exhibition with the gallery considers race in America and questions the idea of visibility and control: who is seen, how are they are seen, and under what conditions?
Don't miss the newest body of work from the 2025 Kresge Artist Fellow.
