You’ve likely come across Goya’s “Saturn Devouring His Son” or envisioned Frida Kahlo’s ancestral lineage. Dutch masters have long depicted domestic life, often highlighting children at their parents’ feet. But how are fathers portrayed in contemporary art? Today, fatherhood remains a compelling theme, explored by numerous modern artists who examine and reimagine it in various ways.
For Father’s Day, Hyperallergic highlights 10 artists whose work delves into diverse representations of fatherhood. Their art captures the essence of immigrant fathers, absent fathers, imperfect fathers, artist fathers, surrogate dads, and even speculative visions of future fatherhood.
Arleene Correa Valencia
In 1996, Arleene Correa Valencia’s father embarked on a journey from Michoacán, Mexico, to the US in search of work. Correa Valencia and her family later joined him in Napa Valley, California, bridging their time apart with heartfelt letters.Â
During her 2022 residency at Mullowney Printing in Portland, Oregon, she created Antes de mĂ, a series of six copperplate photogravures featuring family photos, snippets of letters, traditional Mexica imagery, embroidery, and beading. These works form a rich tapestry of personal and political resilience. One piece, “Hola Papi,” integrates a childhood drawing sent to her father, with its smiling stick figures and abstract parakeet.
“Even though we grew up in the US, my father ensured we remained connected to our Mexican heritage,” Correa Valencia shared with Hyperallergic. “He instilled in us a pride in our language, our ancestors, and our identity. His unfulfilled dream of becoming an artist in the US feels like a shared aspiration. Being an artist feels like it belongs to both of us.”
Amanda Ross-Ho
In the 1980s, Ruyell Ho, a Chinese immigrant to the US, sought a job at a commercial photo studio despite lacking experience in product photography. He compiled a portfolio of 37 images using objects from his home, successfully securing the position. Years later, his daughter Amanda Ross-Ho revisited those photos, exploring his fascination with American aesthetics and the “fake it ’til you make it” mindset common among immigrants.
“Untitled Prop Archive (THE PORTFOLIO)” is both a sleek sculpture and a testament to familial passions and preoccupations. A former prop-maker herself, Ross-Ho recreated or sourced numerous objects, including fake fruit and vintage Budweiser cans. Her father’s influence is evident in the objects’ display on a large-scale model of her childhood kitchen table, which doubled as his workspace. A lightbox behind the table reveals a life-sized, water-damaged transparency of her father, elevating him to a quasi-religious status overseeing this consumerist altar.
Larry W. Cook
Reflecting on the transformative moment before becoming a father, Ta-Nehisi Coates remarked, “A man who doesn’t raise his kids is only half a man.” Larry W. Cook’s 2018 photo series Fatherhood celebrates the everyday father, capturing their vulnerability and strength. The images depict tender moments: a child’s arm draped over a father’s chest, a pink backpack in one hand, and a punching bag in the background. Elements like an electric razor and a Barbie doll evoke neutrality, challenging perceptions.
Cook, an artist, archivist, and professor at Howard University, grew up without his father. His series features family, friends, and paternal figures from his childhood who filled the void. Through portraiture, Cook questions stereotypes about Black fatherhood, encouraging viewers to examine their preconceptions.
Melissa Joseph
Melissa Joseph’s father, K.C. Joseph, was always creating—whether folding napkins into swans or doodling on receipts. As an Indian immigrant in 1970s Pennsylvania, he faced systemic barriers in pursuing his dream of becoming a plastic surgeon, ultimately working as a general surgeon. He found art in staging patients’ gallbladder stones with magazine clippings in hospital waiting rooms. These photos were exhibited at Soloway Gallery in 2022, seven years after his passing.
His untimely death at 67 prompted Melissa to leave teaching for an MFA, channeling her grief into art. She creates works in felt and found objects, exploring family history. “Grief impacts you unpredictably,” she shared. “Our relationship was imperfect, but his passing made me reevaluate my life. Creating images of him felt like bringing him back, if only momentarily.”
Mykolas Valantinas
For some, a father represents financial support. Rytis Valantinas, an artist and father, designed some of Lithuania’s first banknotes in the 1990s. In the exhibition Father II at Vilnius’s Contemporary Art Centre, his son, Mykolas Valantinas, uses AI to reinterpret his father’s designs, exploring legacy and imitation.
Though Lithuania adopted the euro in 2015, Valantinas sees his father’s obsolete litas notes as ripe for artistic reinterpretation. His altered lynx, with its slightly off shadows, challenges notions of independence and authenticity, addressing money as both a national symbol and a family heirloom.
Lavar Munroe
Fatherhood isn’t always biological. In this year’s Venice Biennale, Lavar Munroe creates an intergenerational dialogue with the late artist John Beadle at the Bahamas Pavilion. Discovering Beadle’s obituary in his studio, Munroe felt a spiritual connection. “No one can convince me otherwise,” he shared with Interview.
Both artists draw on Junkanoo traditions, a Bahamian festival known for its colorful processions and costumes. Munroe’s Chicago exhibition, DANCE WITH MY FATHER AGAIN, features materials like boat rope and Air Jordan shoes, forming collages of isolated figures against a fantastical ocean setting.
Ruby Neri and Manuel Neri
Ruby Neri, a ceramicist, curated an exhibition of her late father Manuel Neri’s works at Salon 94 and Andrew Kreps Gallery this spring. A prominent figure in the Bay Area Figurative Movement, Manuel Neri crafted bodies from materials like plaster and marble during the popularity of Abstract Expressionism. “My father had a rich, adventurous life,” Ruby Neri wrote, recalling his tales of Beat poets and travels to Mexico and beyond. “His stories seemed fantastical, shaping my own aspirations.”
Alex Westfall
In her debut photography show See Through at Isolde Gallery in New York, Alex Westfall presents more than two dozen images. The exhibit, resembling a film reel, spans three generations from Manila to Los Angeles. Westfall reunites with her grandmother by incorporating her shadowy Instagram silhouette into aged-looking prints, achieved through unconventional darkroom techniques.
Some pieces feature negatives taken by her father, Matthew, during his high school years in the 1970s. He was an avid photographer, saving money for a zoom lens and capturing images as an “impromptu yearbook photographer.” Stored in Westfall’s grandfather’s basement, some negatives were damaged in a flood, yet she preserved them. By merging them with her photos, she creates works that transcend time and space. The exhibition, running until July 19, honors her father’s influence.
Ei Arakawa-Nash
During the COVID-19 pandemic, artist Ei Arakawa-Nash and partner Forrest decided to start a family despite the challenging times. This hopeful sentiment is captured in Arakawa-Nash’s Grass Babies, Moon Babies at Japan’s Venice Biennale pavilion. Visitors can interact with over 200 baby dolls, symbolizing collective care, and reveal a unique poem encoded in a diaper QR code. The experience encourages reflection, highlighting the impact of holding a baby.
David Hockney
The first artwork David Hockney sold was his 1955 painting “Portrait of My Father,” showcased at Leeds Art Gallery in 1957. Hockney recalled his father’s commentary during the painting process: “That’s too muddy for my cheek,” he’d say. Hockney would retort, “This is how they paint at art school.” The British artist, who passed away earlier this month at 88, continued to lovingly depict his family at home throughout his life.
