Mother Curator, a new exhibition at The Glasgow School of Art (GSA), brings together new and existing work by GSA staff and students exploring motherhood, creativity, and lived experience. Curated by 4th year Fine Art student Emma Scarlett, Mother Curator addresses the complex and often undervalued significance of motherhood within contemporary society and the creative disciplines, and will run at the Reid Gallery from 10 – 31 January 2026.
While conversations surrounding caregiving and gender roles have been ongoing for generations, this exhibition seeks to transform the current narrative by celebrating motherhood in its fullness, encompassing its challenges, strengths, and profound creativity. By sharing lived experiences through their work, Mother Curator hopes to create space for new perspectives on maternal identity and artistic practice.
The exhibition features the diverse work of 25 artists and collaborators, all members of the GSA community, across fine art, design, research, and technical staff roles. Artists include: Chantal Balmer, Sara Barker, Kate Davis, Louise Donnelly, Fiona Glen, Emma Keogh, Lorna Macintyre, Lindsey McAulay, Shauna McMullan, Kim McNeil, Rosie Morris, Maya El Nahal, Thomai Pnevmonidou, Lesley Punton, Susan Roan, Fiona Robertson, Anna Almqvist Romanus, Emma Scarlett, Annabel Sharp, Niketa Shetty, Bex Šik and Jennifer Wicks, Stephanie Smith (SMITH/STEWART), Felicity Steers, and Josie Williams.
The works on display examine themes ranging from embodied experience and hidden labour to the interplay between the domestic and natural worlds. Through a range of creative practices and mediums, the artists reflect on how motherhood shapes and informs their creative output.
Chantal Balmer, a woven textile designer, interprets the body’s transformations across motherhood and its aftermath through light, woven structure, and the tension between natural and man-made materials. Her textiles undulate, distort, and fold into organic forms that often determine their own final shape. Similarly, Annabel Sharp, a knitting technician at GSA for 26 years, uses knitted blankets as symbols of comfort, security, tradition, and memory, noting the irony of “not having time” to be present, even though most of her time is dedicated to her three children. She notes that motherhood is simultaneously the longest and shortest time, with the maker’s time becoming fabric where each stitch holds complex, layered emotions.
Collaboration across generations is highlighted in the work of Screen Printing Technician Lindsey McAulay, who collaborated with her two daughters—Sophie (photography student) and Kim (graphic design student)—to create a composite work using handmade paper and screen-printed elements. This piece serves as a synergy between mother and daughters, celebrating the creative bond. Further exploring intergenerational connections, Fiona Glen’s textile piece Embroidery Mum combines hand and digital machine embroidery to reflect on Motherhoods across generations, drawing inspiration from a motherhood book that belonged to her grandmother.
The exhibition also features work rooted in critical research and advocacy. Lecturer Emma Keogh is interested in the hidden labour of care specific to Type 1 Diabetes in early childhood, informed by her personal experience as a mother. Additionally, Susan Roan, a lecturer and PhD researcher, presents work related to her project Listening to Languages of Labour, which uses expanded drawing practices and alternative photography processes to excavate languages of embodiment in oral narratives of planned home birth.
The exhibition runs from 10 – 31 January 2026, with a preview event on Friday 9 January from 5pm – 7pm. Admission to the preview is free, but tickets should be booked in advance through Eventbrite. There is also a family-friendly drop-in reception that will take place on Saturday 10th January from 12 pm – 2 pm.
For any further information please email press@gsa.ac.uk
Exhibition runs:
10 – 31 January 2026,
Reid Gallery, The Glasgow School of Art.
Opening Hours:
Mon to Sat 10 am – 4.30pm
Sun – Closed.
NOTES FOR EDITORS
About The Glasgow School of Art (GSA)
The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) is internationally recognised as one of Europe’s leading independent university-level institutions for education and research in the visual creative disciplines. Our studio-based, specialist, practice-led teaching, learning, and research draw talented individuals with a shared passion for visual culture and creative production from all over the world. Originally founded in 1845 as one of the first Government Schools of Design, the School’s history can be traced back to 1753 and the establishment of the Foulis Academy delivering a European-style art education. Today, the GSA is an international community of over 3,500 students and staff across architecture, design, fine art, innovation, and technology in our campuses in Glasgow and Altyre (in the Scottish Highlands) and a thriving Open Studio programme delivering non-degree provision to over 1,500 students annually.
