The Mothers is a photograph of the artist and her mother after Magritte’s The Lovers. Whilst the latter’s subjects are isolated by their fabric, here the artist is both trapped and comforted within the cosy embrace of her mother and a plastic disposable tablecloth.

Polly Penrose (UK) lives and works in Somerset. Penrose’s self-portraits explore themes of identity at the intersection of the physical and emotional self, using her own body as both the subject and the medium. She contorts and positions herself in unusual, often precarious ways that challenge traditional representations of the human form, underscoring the idea of adaptation, struggle, or belonging. The environments she chooses, such as abandoned buildings, unfurnished domestic spaces play a significant role, emphasising contrast, harmony, or discord between the human form and the spaces it occupies. Her pictures are a microcosm of how we fit, fold ourselves, change our shape to squeeze into the myriad of roles we are expected to play.

Penrose studied Graphic Design at Camberwell College of Arts in London. She won the London Photographic Association Awards (2008). She was shortlisted for the D&AD Next Photographer Award (2015) and for the Hellerau Photography Award (2016). Her work has featured in The Guardian, Dazed Digital, The British Journal of Photography, The Huffington Post, Ignant and many other influential blogs and Magazines. Five of her works feature in the Hyman Collection, two in Michael Hoppen’s personal collection and Baroness Kingsmill’s collection.

Solo exhibitions: Body Language, Messums, Wiltshire, UK (2022); Self Obscured, Benrubi Gallery, New York, USA (2018); Ten Seconds, the Hoxton Gallery, London (2016); ‘A Body of Work’, Downstairs at Mother Gallery, London, (2014). Selected group exhibitions: ‘Writing her own Script: Women Photographer from the Hyman Collection’ at Photo London (2023); ‘Spring Break Art show, New York, USA (2018); ‘Image’, Messums, Wiltshire, UK (2018); ‘Dear Sylvia’, the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, Australia (2015); ‘Self Reflection’, The Untitled Space, New York, USA (2016); ‘All Inclusive’, HVW8 Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2016).