Lou Blakeway presents a series of paintings produced during her time as the 2024 Freelands Studio Fellow in the Painting Department at the University of Brighton.

The show’s title is a double-entendre as her work explores the histories and limitations of both women and painting. Through portraiture and self-portraiture, she explores the hierarchical constraints forced upon women throughout history in mythology, religion, patriarchal society, the class system and art.

The works are an attempt to reclaim and give validation to women’s stories. To give them a voice when they had none.