VIENNA.- A new exhibition at the Albertina in Vienna is turning the spotlight on one of the most essential — yet often overlooked — forms of work in society: care. Titled “Care Matters,” the exhibition draws from the renowned VERBUND Collection and brings together around 50 works by 33 Austrian and international artists to examine the social, political, and emotional dimensions of caregiving.

Curated by Gabriele Schor, founding director of the VERBUND Collection, the exhibition runs from March 12 through June 28, 2026, in the museum’s Tietze Galleries. Moving through five thematic sections, the show traces how artists have addressed care and domestic labor from the Feminist Avant-Garde of the 1970s to the present day.

Many of the works on view have only recently entered the VERBUND Collection and several are being presented in Austria for the first time.

From the kitchen to global labor systems

At its core, Care Matters asks a simple but powerful question: if caregiving is fundamental to society, why is it still so undervalued?

The exhibition begins in an unlikely yet symbolic space — the kitchen. Long associated with women and domestic responsibility, the kitchen becomes a site of artistic critique and reinterpretation. Through sculptures, installations, and video works, artists examine the expectations historically placed on women within the home.

In the 1970s, artists such as Birgit Jürgenssen, Martha Rosler, Margaret Raspé, and Karin Mack used their own bodies to expose the invisible burdens of housework. Later generations of artists continue to address the topic, but often through objects — stoves, appliances, and tableware — rather than the figure of the housewife herself. According to curator Gabriele Schor, this shift reflects a broader transformation in feminist artistic language.

Care beyond the household

As visitors move deeper into the exhibition, the focus expands from domestic life to global systems of labor and inequality.

Works by Sandra Eleta (Panama), Natalia Iguiñiz Boggio (Peru), Letícia Parente (Brazil), Mary Sibande (South Africa), and Lorna Simpson (United States) reveal how reproductive and caregiving labor is frequently outsourced to marginalized communities. In many parts of the world, these tasks fall disproportionately to Black women, Indigenous women, and women of color, often under precarious conditions shaped by historical inequalities rooted in colonialism and racism.

By highlighting these realities, the exhibition reframes caregiving as both personal experience and political issue.

The balancing act of parenthood and art

Another section of the exhibition explores the complex relationship between parenthood and artistic practice.

Artists including Renate Bertlmann, Annegret Soltau, Hannah Cooke, and Hansel Sato examine the tension between creative careers and family responsibilities. Their works reflect the emotional and practical challenges of raising children while pursuing an artistic life, while also questioning the social expectations placed on mothers and fathers.

In recent years, artists and critics have increasingly advocated for structural change within the art world to make space for artist parents. One such voice is British critic Hettie Judah, whose manifesto How Not to Exclude Artist Mothers (and Other Parents) is referenced within the exhibition.

Aging societies and the future of care

Caregiving extends beyond childhood and family life. As populations age across much of the world, elder care has become an urgent social issue.

Japanese artist Akihito Yoshida contributes a series of intimate photographs documenting moments of intergenerational support and tenderness within elderly care. Nearby, Norwegian artist Frida Orupabo presents a striking large-scale collage that reflects on vulnerability, community, and shared responsibility in times of crisis.

Together, the works invite visitors to reconsider care not as a private obligation, but as a collective practice of mutual support.

Humor, protest, and feminist resistance

The exhibition concludes with a series of works that approach the subject with irony and defiance.

Artists including Kirsten Justesen, Marlene Haring, Małgorzata Markiewicz, Anna Schölß, and Christine Lederer, along with the British collective See Red Women’s Workshop, challenge the unequal distribution of care work through humor, exaggeration, and visual protest.

Their works echo decades of feminist critique while reminding viewers that the struggle for equal recognition of care labor is far from over.

A long partnership between Albertina and VERBUND

For Albertina director Ralph Gleis, the exhibition reflects both a continuation of the museum’s collaboration with the VERBUND Collection and a broader curatorial shift.

“Care Matters underscores the strong partnership between the Albertina and the VERBUND Collection,” Gleis said. “It also aligns with our renewed focus on thematic exhibitions and presentations dedicated to women artists.”

VERBUND CEO Michael Strugl emphasized the company’s longstanding commitment to socially engaged art.

“With this exhibition, the VERBUND Collection continues its engagement with feminist and socially relevant artistic practices,” Strugl said. “The topic of caregiving is not only artistically compelling — it is also a crucial social issue that deserves greater visibility.”

Art that makes the invisible visible

Founded in 2004 by the Austrian energy company VERBUND, the VERBUND Collection now includes over 1,000 works by around 200 artists, many of them focused on feminist art and socially engaged practices.

With Care Matters, the Albertina invites audiences to reconsider the labor that quietly sustains daily life — from cooking and cleaning to raising children and caring for the elderly.

The exhibition ultimately poses a question that resonates far beyond the museum walls: if care is essential to society, why does it remain so invisible?