Avant Gallery Presents “Victoria Ledig: Labor of Love”

Miami, FL – March 14, 2024 – Avant Gallery is delighted to present the debut exhibition of Victoria Ledig’s paintings, presented in partnership with the Women’s Chamber of Commerce of Miami Dade County and the Miami Beach Chapter of 100+ Women Who Care. Coinciding with Women’s History Month, “Victoria Ledig: Labor of Love” explores the complexities of womanhood and motherhood. Through her evocative paintings, Ledig invites viewers to explore the multifaceted nature of being a woman, embracing both strength and vulnerability. 

Ledig’s body of work largely depicts the female form, presented as a source of empowerment and as a means of storytelling. She uses the process of creating these paintings as a means of exploring her own role as a woman, mother, and artist. For example, the work Inside the Box stemmed from the feeling of being pulled in many different directions and the pressure to align with some ideal. Paintings such as this one are a tribute to sisterhood and the struggles that bind women together. Several works of Ledig’s capture intimate moments of motherhood, highlighting the love, exhaustion, and unique bond between mother and child. In describing her work A Mother’s Touch, Ledig says: “I want the women I paint to take up the space they need and to show up as they are. Big, with body mass, with round bellies, milk spills and tired eyes included.” Her motivation—and goal—is to show both the rawness and tenderness of being a mother; a reality that is unfiltered but profoundly beautiful for all its challenges. Beyond her own experiences, Ledig looks to renowned female artists for inspiration. Alice Neel is one example—her raw depictions of a mother’s conflict, exhaustion, joy, and pain, pregnant bodies free of idealization. Ledig also cites Mary Cassatt, the Impressionist painter renowned for her tender portraits of women’s daily lives and of mothers with children; and Elizabeth Catlett whose work addressed racial and gender inequality. 

For Ledig, becoming a mother was the impetus for her return to art. She explains that “doing what you feel called to feels easy” after the intensity of pregnancy, labor, nursing, sleep deprivation, and the experience of taking care of a newborn. “I always knew that I wanted to be a painter,” Ledig muses, “however to actually be and embody it, I needed to have this transcendent and singular experience of becoming a mother. My practice right now is my way of making sense of this experience, as well as taking up space as a woman in this world.”