READING, PA.- The Reading Public Museum is presenting a new exhibition: Holly Trostle Brigham: Mothers Sister, and Daughters, opening in The Museum’s Cohen Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art. This engaging exhibition brings together Philadelphia artist Holly Trostle Brigham’s major works, including selections from several series, dating from the mid-1990s to the present. For the past three decades, Brigham has researched and interpreted the lives of women throughout time and has often used herself as the model. She draws her sources from mythology, art, religion, and theater. The exhibition is timed to coincide with Women’s History Month, which is celebrated throughout March.

 The earliest works in the exhibition explore goddesses from ancient Egypt and classical antiquity, such as Isis and Cybele, giving birth and giving comfort to their children. Brigham’s first series, Seven Sisters, recovers the life stories of women artists from the Renaissance to the twentieth century, providing a rich personal iconography that includes flowers and butterflies. Her next series, Sacred Sisters (also known as Seven Sisters II), depicts women of faith who also created poetry, music, painting, calligraphy, and ceramics. While painting the Sacred Sisters, Brigham also created a multimedia installation piece dedicated to the 12th-century German mystic nun Hildegard of Bingen that includes portraiture, memento mori, sculpted reliquaries, music, and a found object. 

Both of the Seven Sisters series were further developed into limited edition, handmade artist books that have been collected by leading museums, universities, and special collection libraries, including the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the Beinecke Library at Yale University. Brigham’s most recent work introduces the viewer to women who were pioneers in the theater, dating back to Isabella Andreini in 16th-century Italy and France. 

The exhibition will remain on display through June 4, 2023.  

 The artist will lead a Gallery Talk on Friday, April, 28 at 1 pm in the Cohen Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art as part of The Museum’s Senior Series sponsored by the Berks County Area Agency on Aging.