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Installation view of  “Painting at Night” juried exhibition at Collar Works in Troy. (Courtesy: Collar Works)

Installation view of  “Painting at Night” juried exhibition at Collar Works in Troy. (Courtesy: Collar Works)

Installation view of  “Painting at Night” juried exhibition at Collar Works in Troy. (Courtesy: Collar Works)

Installation view of  “Painting at Night” juried exhibition at Collar Works in Troy. (Courtesy: Collar Works)

Installation view of  “Painting at Night” juried exhibition at Collar Works in Troy. (Courtesy: Collar Works)

Many artists have to work a second job to support their first job as artists. Choosing to add parenting to the mix can create a tricky balancing act. “Painting at Night,” an exhibition at Collar Works in Troy, presents work made specifically by artist/mothers who find a way.  

This is the third annual “Painting at Night” juried exhibition, founded by the Artist/Mother podcast. The first iteration opened in March in Nashville, Tenn. In 2018, Kaylan Buteyn, an artist based in Ft. Wayne, Ind., began the Artist/Mother podcast, featuring interviews with artists who are mothers (they welcome female-identifying artists of all backgrounds, gender identities and sexualities.) She gave the annual exhibition the name “Painting at Night” from a quote she read in The New York Times: “You can’t paint at night in your kitchen and hope to be a good artist.”

 Though the original quote came from an art gallery’s announcement that it was leaving New York City because of the high cost of living, the point was taken. And not appreciated. As the Collar Works show’s curator Judith Braun said, “I don’t for one minute believe that kids and kitchen tables are hurdles (that) artists who are mothers cannot jump. Mothers have their hands and hearts and heads full, but they are the pioneers of making it work.”  

The show features 66 women who indeed are making it work, while making all kinds of work. It’s a packed show of disparate artists connected by their self-identification as caregivers but curator Braun, herself an artist, mother and grandmother, has managed to organize the work into a cohesive and illuminating exhibition.  

There are thoughtfully considered groupings throughout, hung in salon-style configurations often with larger pieces bridging them to other works in the show. At the entrance of the exhibition is a large wall with a mix of textile pieces and pieces that reference textiles. Fern Apfel’s tender “Blue on Blue (Infant’s Jacket)” provides a rest from the bursting color and pattern on the wall around it, the blue repeated in Angela Witmore’s “Artist Desk” and Anna Wallace’s “Toy Block Quilt #2.” There are other quilted pieces like Victoria van der Laan’s “Hex 1” or Jacquelyn Strycker’s “Leftovers” and “Sampler,” both of which only look like quilts but are constructed out of other materials like paint and prints.  

Across from this wall is Katie Cercone’s “Mago Poeta,” a large assemblage of recycled fabrics with Minnie Mouse repeating throughout and bursts of pink. It’s next to a black and white graphite drawing, “Night Disco” by Jenna Ransom, that references quilting patterns and the two pieces are visually bridged in color and form by a large pink and white plastic assemblage by Martha Chason-Sokol.  

A cluster of small sculptures includes two pieces associated with new motherhood elevated to icons: “Hand Pump,” by Aimee Gilmore, a shiny red chrome-plated breast pump, next to “Self Care,” a cement-encased breast pump part by Katherine Duclos. Next to these is Amy Branch-Lambert’s “Beauty in the Broken,” a small sculpture of a female figure looking part animal, with hair obscuring her face and breasts hanging low, at once poignant, disturbing and darkly humorous.  

Though many of these artists very specifically address issues around motherhood, certainly not all do. Some are working through formal or conceptual questions. Some share concerns related to consumerism and climate change whether through repurposing materials — Claire Sherwood, Jess Blaustein, Cercone and Chason-Sokol, for instance, or more directly, as in Sara Farrell Okamura’s fiery “Rage,” an abstract painting that could stand for more than what the artist calls, “the stigmata of the climate crisis.”  

There are moments of levity here, too. Sara Corley Martinez’s “Clown,” a photo of the artist donning a rainbow wig, is on a wall including a trio of pieces connected by a pop sensibility:  Jen McGowan’s “Cheerios Mouth,” Rylan Morrison’s clown sunset “Highway,” and Sandy Claffords’ “The Queen of Diamonds — Shining on You Hoes.”  

With 78 works by 66 artists, there’s so much more to see here. When an artist is able to make the choice to become a mother, the motivation to make art remains — even if it means painting at night in their kitchen (or during naps and play dates).  

Where: Collar Works, 621 River St., Troy

For more info: Collarworks.org or 518.285.0765