Erika Mayo explores the complexities of motherhood in the “Kill Your Darlings” exhibit, which will open on July 26 at the main gallery at Orange Project in Art District, Bacolod City.
Mayo’s first solo exhibition, curated by Moreen Austria, will run until Sept. 6, 2025.
“In this deeply personal body of work, Mayo reflects on the absence of maternal presence in her own life, and how that absence shaped her understanding of care, identity, and womanhood.
“Now a mother herself, she revisits these memories with a new perspective,” a press release from Orange Project said.
Using the image of the cow—a symbol of nourishment turned into a consumer good—Mayo explores the contradictions of motherhood today: both sacred yet mechanical. Her works speak to the rituals and emotional labor carried in the body, especially by women.
“Kill Your Darlings” invites viewers into this ongoing process of gaining a deeper understanding of this kind of unpaid labor.
Through layered strokes and metaphors, Mayo examines which stories can be let go, and which ones must be held—even in their raw, unfinished state, the press release added. ||
