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Tracing the Matriline Artists’ Lightning Talks
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Sharon James
Mother / Artist
“I am a Black, queer mother and re-emerging artist post the birth of my children and a 7-year break from the arts. My art practice is two-dimensional; painting/drawing and printmaking. My work is an autobiographical account of my everyday existence.My lived experience is not just of the immediate, i.e. motherhood, but of all things past, future, visible, and invisible. Through art, I document experiences of being Black and Queer in White majority Dorset, of receiving IVF treatment (typically thought of as a White privilege), of the history of slavery, and of my sexuality. My work emerges from an unyielding desire to leave a legacy for my children- something we lack as Black British people in rural spaces, separated from our culture, history, and everyday representation. This makes my work not just ‘my’ story but is also an active act of influencing what will be ‘our’ story.
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Matilda Macmillan
Mother / Artist
Matilda Macmillan is a figurative artist and mother based in South Devon. She has a special interest in capturing the body at times of transformation and transition. She is passionate about making art about the shifts in pregnancy and matrescence, challenging social norms around parenting and channelling rage from unsolicited parenting advice into artwork. Matilda believes boxes are for things, not people and enjoys flexing her creative muscles across different media, working in oil paint, gouache, photography, collage and linoprint. Her work has been recently shown at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol and Artizan Gallery in Torquay.
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Yara El-Sherbini (YARA+DAVINA)
MOTHER ARTIST DUO
YARA + DAVINA are a social practice artist duo, who began thier job share whilst in the throws of early motherhood. They create ambitious public artworks that respond to site, context and audience. Unfailingly inventive, they use formats from within popular culture to make works which are accessible and playful. From turning manhole covers into WOMAN WHOLE covers to creating football scarves inspiring unity over division, they root their works in the everyday, using a lightness of touch and humour to make works that are both poetic and universal. Recent commissions include Yorkshire Sculpture Park, National Trust, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Somerset House, Old Diorama Art Center with Camden Council, and Policy Lab. They are currently working on multiple commissions around the UK. Their current exhibition Everything We Love We Will Lose at Lightbox Gallery, Woking, co-commissioned by the National Trust explores grief and loss, with a focus on pregnancy loss. On until 5th July 2026.
Talk and Discussion with Hettie Judah
Hettie Judah is a writer and curator whose new book How to Enter the Artworld…After is released in April, published by Hoxton Mini Press. Hettie will host a relaxed hour-long Q&A in which everyone is invited to participate. The session will reflect on how artists navigate entry, re-entry and building a sustainable career. The end of the session will be an opportunity for conversation between participants, and a book signing with Hettie
Hettie is a regular contributor to The Guardian, Frieze and The Times Literary Supplement, and writes a monthly column for Apollo magazine. Her writing on art can also be found in Art Quarterly, Art Monthly, ArtReview and other publications with 'art' in the title. Between 2016 and 2024 she was the chief art critic for the British daily newspaper The i.
She is curator of the Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood which toured venues in the UK between 2024 and 2025, before transferring to VISUAL in Ireland, where it ran until early 2026. The standalone book Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood is published by Thames & Hudson.
Following publication of her 2020 study on the impact of motherhood on artists’ careers, in 2021 she worked with a group of artists to draw up the manifesto How Not To Exclude Artist Parents, now available in 16 languages. She regularly talks about art and with artists for colleges, as well as museum and gallery events. A supporter of Arts Emergency she has mentored artists and students through a variety of different schemes. As a broadcaster she can be found on programmes including BBC Radio 4’s Front Row and the BBC TV arts series A Life In Ten Pictures. Recent books include Tracey Emin (Tate, 2026), The Secret Lives of Stones (Laurence King, 2025). How Not To Exclude Artist Mothers (and other parents) (Lund Humphries, 2022) and Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones (John Murray, London, 2022/ Penguin, NY, 2023). She is currently working on a major book on art and women’s desire, to be published by Thames & Hudson in autumn 2027.
In 2022, together with Jo Harrison, Hettie co-founded the Art Working Parents Alliance - a supportive network and campaigning group for curators, academics, gallerists, technicians, educators and others working in the arts.
Who We Are
The Daylight Collective are a collective of artists across disciplines who are also m/others, interested in supporting and promoting m/other artists to remain visible and make work on their terms. Each year we host a M/Other Artist Exhibition. Our 2026 exhibition Tracing the Matriline is part of this years Matrescence Festival and feautured 29 artists exploring matrescence, maternal ancestry and m/other figures. This years exhibition is curated by Jenny Cahill, Amy Thornley Heard supported by Lizzy Humber.
Matrescence Festival invites conversation, art, community and education to explore the seismic changes that occur to a person when they become a m/other. Matrescence encompasses significant physical, cognitive, emotional, hormonal, and social changes that reshape a person’s identity and worldview. The festival runs from the 12 May - 25 June
The Daylight Collective was founded by Lizzy Humber and Matrescence Festival was co-founded by Lizzy Humber and Claire Tonti.
