Miranda Forrester has described her work as a celebration of women’s bodies, ‘the joy in occupying feminine identities and being in relation with one another’.

In opposition to art historical narratives, in which the Black woman is anonymised, or erased entirely, Forrester articulates a Queer, Black female gaze that is resistant and desiring. 

 

Stretching transparent polycarbonate over the frame of her painting, revealing the stretchers beneath the surface, there is exposure and interiority in Forrester’s imagery. Domestic intimacy and, in particular the anticipation and experience of new motherhood is the focus of How does it feel?, 2023. This is a tender depiction of queer motherhood and, moreover, a rare and vital representation:

 'I think being the non-gestational mother comes with its own insecurities at the beginning, mostly I think, not from any true position of insignificance, but a lack of examples and visibility.'
—Miranda Forester

The soft, vulnerable, aching love of motherhood is conveyed in the familiar, hip-cradling hold and in the mother’s fixed attention. It is evident too in Forrester’s warm palette and in the translucent spaces and milky brushstrokes of oil and gloss on a highly primed, smooth surface. The painting is a skin where we see what lies beneath.  

 

Miranda Forrester (b. London, UK) lives and works in London. She holds a BA in Fine Art Painting from the University of Brighton. Her work is included in public and private collections, including the Arts Council Collection and Soho House. Solo exhibitions include  Interiorities, Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Chicargo, 2024; Arrival, Tiwani Contemporary, London, 2023 and Abode, Guts Gallery, London, 2020. Group exhibitions include Leda and the Swan, Victoria Miro Gallery, London, curated by Minna Moore Ede, 2023; Like Paradise, Claridge’s Art Space, London, curated by Ekow Eshun, 2023; Hauntology: Ghostly Matters, Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Chicago, 2024; Somatic Markings, Kasmin Gallery, New York, 2022 and Hard as Nails, Quench Gallery, Margate.