The Bright Women: Layo Bright

The Bright Women is a body of glass portraits depicting the artist herself, her older sister, and their mother. Nearly ten years after her move to the United States from Nigeria, Layo Bright reflects on the relationship between her and the women in her immediate family, as they navigate their respective lives in different locations of the world while staying connected. 

Each woman is navigating distinct circumstances and turning points, transforming into different versions of herself. Bright is interested in exploring these transitional phases of life and transformation which involve embracing change, overcoming obstacles, and finding one’s own voice. It is the attribution of fragility that predominantly interests her when working with glass, actively rejecting the misconception of women as fragile. The artist depicts her muses in glass as a testament to their resilience, beauty, strength, grace and fortitude. She is telling a story of resilience, femininity, strength and courage, and rethinks how the portrait has been envisioned in contemporary arts. 

The blooms that encroach the female portraits are a mix of generic and native flowers from around the world, signifying different parts of the world the women have moved through and dwelled in. The flowers also signify life transitions that have shaped their journey, using the language of flowers to explore the complexities of their stories and how their lives have been shaped so far. Despite the distance between them, the women are connected and continue to bloom in each other’s lives. The works speak of connectivity despite separation and distance.

Interested in the concept of the artist muse, that for centuries has often depicted women from the male gaze, Bright pushes against this notion by depicting women based on their own terms of autonomy and self determination. The women’s portraits have been rendered from life casts that the women sat for, taken by Bright, preserving a record of their likeness. In recontextualising the idea of the portrait through glass portraits of women of the African diaspora, Bright explores their visibility, autonomy and agency despite social and cultural pressures.