Sparrow Art Center, an art education company that recently moved into a new gallery and teaching facility, is hosting its first art show, with a Mother’s Day theme.
The show features work from over a dozen artists, all of which are focused on the concept of motherhood, coinciding with the upcoming holiday.
Because of the open-ended prompt, pieces vary widely. Many depict flowers, a subject for which the relationship to Mother’s Day is clear, while others’ connection to the institution of motherhood is more abstract.
“I intentionally didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes, or be too narrowminded in what I think Mother’s Day is, or what I think a mother is,” said Cody Winiecki, Sparrow Art Center’s owner. “I think everybody has these different experiences with motherhood. Who am I to say?”
His own contribution to the show depicts a horse and its foal, a metaphor for his relationships with his mother as a source of comfort, couched in his preferred genre of western art.
Winiecki asked each artist to provide a personal statement to appear below their work to not only clarify the purpose of the piece and the connection they found between their work and their own mother, but also to spark reflections in the viewer with their own relationships with a maternal figure, whether that be their mom, an aunt, a grandmother or whatever woman in their life nurtured their growth.
“I want people to look at art, not just the painting, but the artist’s sentiment,” Winiecki said. “‘This reminds me of my mom, a connection I have with her.’ Rather than selling art, you’re selling that connection.”
Winiecki said that the art world can often feel both transactional and condescending. Galleries often feel like a retail store, he said, with a piece hanging on the wall with a price tag attached, and a felt sense of superiority if a viewer doesn’t “get it.”
Winiecki doesn’t want to hold the viewer’s hand, but believes that, especially for this show, an artist’s reflections on the context of their work, an explanation of the scene or object that reminded them of their own mother, could provide the connection for an excellent Mother’s Day gift or prompt a conversation with a visiting mother and child after seeing a particular piece and learning its origin.
The show is meant to be approachable, and explicitly decommodified. A free reception, open to the public, will be held on Saturday between 6-9 p.m. at the gallery, located at 3780 N Garfield Ave. Winiecki’s explicit hope for the show is that many sales are intended as Mother’s Day gifts; every cent spent on a piece goes straight to the artist, he said, to better support local rising painters.
“I want to bring people together more than anything,” he said. “We want to build up our art community.”
In addition to the Saturday reception, Winiecki is hosting two educational painting sessions for mothers and their offspring, where participants will recreate a rose with paint; the cost is $10 for mothers (to cover costs) and $40 for their children or anyone else looking to give a maternal figure in their lives a fun Saturday afternoon.
The sessions will be held between 10 a.m. and noon and 1-3 p.m. Saturday ahead of the reception. To reserve a slot, interested party’s should email sparrowartcenter@gmail.com.
Around half of the pieces appearing in the show, which will hang until the first week of June, come from Winiecki’s own students, part of his attempt to elevate local artists who might not yet have found acclaim in the art world. The rest come from more established artists in the area that Winiecki has met through his career.
“He’s doing this 100% commission free,” said Greg Evans, Winiecki’s business partner, who operates an art framing business out of the same storefront as the new gallery. “So you get the breadth. All comers are OK. That’s what Cody’s doing, he’s opening his space and he’s offering that, he’s paying for that.”
