A new major exhibition interrogating inherited roles of womanhood has opened at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.
It includes almost 70 works by internationally celebrated artists Del Kathryn Barton, Emily Hunt and Jess Johnson.
The Mother Maiden Crone exhibition is on display until May 2027.
Magic, witchcraft, ancient rituals and unbridled sexuality are some of the complex and multifaceted aspects of womanhood explored in the latest exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.
The gallery says the Mother Maiden Crone exhibition creates "a cacophony of disruptive female energy", exploring how the bright and beautiful coexist with the dark and distasteful.
The exhibition contains almost 70 works by three internationally celebrated contemporary artists, including two-time Archibald Prize winner Del Kathryn Barton.
Barton's extravagant works were an early inspiration for exhibition co-artist Emily Hunt, whose practice embraces magic and folklore.
Works by artist Jess Johnson round out the exhibition, with her colourful and geometric style showcasing her science fiction-inspired world.
Mother Maiden Crone is the first time the three have had their work displayed together.
Gallery director Bree Pickering said that across the exhibition, craft and the handmade underpinned conceptual and spiritual reckonings with age-old stereotypes.
"Maiden Mother Crone is an exhibition that is both intricate and intimate, as well as maximalist and expansive," Ms Pickering said.
