Holly Trostle Brigham: Mothers, Sisters, and Daughters
March 18 – June 4, 2023

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. 

Her earliest works in the exhibition explore goddesses from ancient Egypt and classical antiquity, such as Isis and Cybele, giving birth and succoring their children. Her 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. Brigham’s 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. 

Senior Series: 4/28/23 – Meet the Artist – Holly Trostle Brigham 

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