This 33-artist group show takes its conceptual point of departure from the album Johnny Cash and His Woman, co-written by June Carter, whose creative labor has historically been referred to under the possessive designation “Johnny’s woman.” This naming reflects a common pattern of erasure, one in which women’s contributions are rendered secondary, anonymous, or instrumentalized in service of a figure of cultural authority. Painting and Her Women engages this pattern by foregrounding the overlooked materials that sustain artistic practices, specifically the tools and processes that are foundational yet rarely given appropriate appreciation.

The artists in the exhibition engage materiality as a method of inquiry. They use processes to reconsider authorship and generate meaning. The palette, in particular, shifts from a secondary support to an active participant in the work. This shift raises a central question: does a work of art reside solely in the finished object, or does it also exist within the acts, tools, and decisions that lead to its making?

Within the exhibition, tools of painting function as both material and metaphor, crediting process, labor, and material intelligence as key components of authorship. Artists utilize palettes, biscuit cutters, and rolling pins. Their apertures, handles, and surfaces record touch, pressure, and duration, making embodied knowledge visible through form. The exhibition challenges singular perceptions and complexifies what it has meant to be defined by labels such as mother, woman, binary, female, and lady painter.