Changing the narrative: Women in the Picture

When I first began shaping the Artscapy exhibition, Women in the Picture (4th - 8th of November), I knew I wanted to create more than an exhibition of women’s work and I wanted to create a statement. For too long, women have been presented in art primarily through the male gaze, their identities flattened, their stories diminished, their individuality obscured. I wanted to turn that narrative on its head. This exhibition was about looking at women through women’s eyes and about demonstrating why supporting women artists matters more urgently than ever.

I was drawn to artists who each, in their own way, disrupt and expand representation. They offer new perspectives, whether through bold abstraction, reimagined portraiture, or deeply psychological figuration. Together, they resist simplification and present womanhood as layered, contradictory, and powerful.

• Lee Miller’s work has always inspired me: her portraits revealed humanity, dignity, and quiet resilience at a time when women were often reduced to decoration. She showed that women could be subjects with agency, not just objects to be consumed. That spirit of reclamation underpins this exhibition.
• Oriele Steiner exaggerates and distorts the female form, creating metaphorical figures that are playful, unsettling, and emotionally raw.
• Ewa Juszkiewicz takes the grandeur of Old Master portraiture and subverts it by replacing faces with fantastical motifs, exposing the ways women were historically denied individuality.
• Monika Marchewka paints dreamlike figures drawn from nature and the sea, images that feel like fragments of a film, inviting the viewer to extend the story.
• Lindsay Bull captures characters caught between strength and fragility, ritual and performance, presenting women as both elusive and commanding.
• Stefania Tejada paints her subjects as modern warrior-women—untamed, ancestral, spiritual—meeting our gaze head-on.
• Gal Schindler renders women who emerge from and dissolve into fields of colour, embodying myth, sensuality, and vulnerability all at once.
• Konstantina Krikzoni pushes painting into the tactile and performative, with bodies that seem to decay and renew at the same time, reminding us of transformation as a vital, feminine force.

Each of these artists speaks differently, yet together they form a chorus – a reimagining of the female presence in art.

Image taken during private view of Women in the Picture. Photo: © Max, YMX events

For me, this exhibition was not only about artistic representation but also, about market transformation. Women artists are still undervalued, yet we are seeing extraordinary growth, institutional recognition, and increasing collector demand. Supporting them is both an act of cultural leadership and a wise investment. Collectors who acquire these works are not just building their collections, they are helping to reshape art history.

I created Women in the Picture because I believe we are at a turning point. The female gaze is not a trend; it is a necessary rebalancing. To collect women artists today is to participate in a movement that is redefining culture, reframing the canon, and ensuring that women’s voices will not just be seen but will be heard – powerfully, permanently, and on their own terms.

If you would like to attend future events, become an Artscapy member.