Milk: Maria Farrar
Ota Fine Arts Shanghai is pleased to present Milk, a solo exhibition by Maria Farrar. Following its first presentation at Ota Fine Arts Singapore earlier this year, the Shanghai iteration expands upon the original exhibition with a group of newly created works, further extending Farrar's exploration of the inner self, emotional nourishment, and the relationship one holds with oneself.
In comparison to Girls Being Girls, Farrar's 2023 solo exhibition at Ota Fine Arts Shanghai, Milk expands her ongoing exploration of womanhood. While Girls Being Girls celebrated women as independent subjects, embracing the freedom, multiplicity, and vitality of girlhood, Milk turns its attention toward care, intimacy, and the evolving experience of womanhood across different stages of life. For Farrar, growing up does not mean leaving the curious and playful "girl" behind, but continuing to care for, listen to, and nurture her.
The idea of continual nourishment lies at the heart of Milk, echoing Farrar's reflection on Shakespeare's phrase "the milk of human kindness" from Macbeth. Milk signifies not only physical nourishment, but also kindness toward oneself and others, and a way of relating to one's inner world. Throughout the exhibition, she reflects on what truly sustains us, both physically and emotionally. In Butter Roll (2026), melon bread and butter rolls become vessels for family memories, evoking the warmth and complexity of childhood. In Askew Road (2026), a mother sits with her child in a London neighbourhood café alongside the "girl" who still exists within the artist, quietly awaiting care and companionship. Recurring motifs of biscuits, bread, croissants, and berries are not simply still-life motifs, but expressions of desire, memory, and sensory experience. As Farrar has remarked, painting does not rely on sight alone, it emerges through moments in which taste, touch, and smell converge, giving rise to the irresistible impulse: "I want to paint that."
If food embodies physical nourishment, Farrar extends the meaning of Milk into the emotional and spiritual realm through imagery drawn from art history. Madonna Del Latte (2026) grew out of Farrar's encounter with early Renaissance paintings of the Madonna and Child. It is the Virgin's unwavering embrace that gives form to the quiet strength of care and love. In Warrior (2026), a female knight reins in her horse just in time to avoid trampling a daffodil beneath its feet, suggesting that kindness resides in the smallest gestures of everyday care. Together, these images connect the history of painting with Farrar's continually evolving inner world.
However, nourishment does not merely respond to what is gentle, beautiful, or comforting; it also embraces the complex and contradictory aspects within every individual. Taking the Seven Deadly Sins as her starting point, Farrar is less interested in sin itself than in how emotions such as anger, envy, desire, and sloth can be acknowledged, listened to, and embraced. In Oracle (2026), moments of uncertainty and hesitation in the creative process become moments in which sloth quietly emerges, while genuine direction arises not from prophecy, but gradually through painting itself. Painting is not about illustrating an answer already known, but about discovering it through the act of painting itself. Every figure, food motif, and symbol begins with a subtle yet genuine impulse, gradually taking shape as the painting unfolds.
Rather than offering a conclusion about growth or care, Milk unfolds as an ongoing process — one of listening, responding, and forming connections. In doing so, it invites us to relearn how to meet ourselves with tenderness, and, in turn, to extend that same tenderness to the world around us.
