📍 Perrotin, Los Angeles
🗓️ September 12 – October 18, 2025
Danielle Orchard brings the fragile yet transformative journey of motherhood to her paintings. Firstborn, her first solo exhibition in Los Angeles, explores the chaotic and poetic dimensions of early parenthood.
The Body and Symbolism of Motherhood
Orchard’s scenes, rendered on velvety surfaces, capture the rhythm of motherhood—from pregnancy and birth to childcare and sleepless nights. Here, motherhood is not merely a biological process but also a metaphor for artistic creation. Painting and raising a child both demand intuition, patience, and relentless physical energy.
Highlights from the Works
- Presentation: Referencing historical depictions of the nude, it portrays a cesarean scene in a surreal, dreamlike atmosphere.
- Hatching: A group of mothers gathered around turtle eggs transforms fertility and anticipation into a timeless ritual.
- Monitor: A sleepless mother listening to her baby’s breathing makes visible the universal anxiety of new parents.
- A First Cut: A child’s first haircut becomes a scene rich with symbols, blending the sacred and the everyday.
- Ophelia: Referencing Shakespeare’s tragic heroine, it depicts the delicate line between fragility and strength in motherhood.
- Breast Stroke & Back Stroke: Swimmers symbolize bodily freedom independent of a child’s needs.
Symbolism and Dialogue with Art History
Orchard’s works engage a broad range of references, from Picasso’s forms to 17th-century Vanitas still lifes, from sacred motherhood iconography to modern psychology. Each scene presents motherhood not only as an individual experience but as a collective memory woven with history, culture, and symbols.
First Glance, First Step
Firstborn is both a personal narrative of motherhood and a meditation on the fertility of art itself. Orchard’s figures invite viewers not just to observe but to reflect on their own vulnerabilities, anxieties, and possibilities for renewal.
