Apsara Studio is proud to present Holding Both, a dialogue between artists Maria Hatling and Paloma Tendero. The dual show navigates the intertwined pressures of biology, autonomy, and belonging. Through their work, they explore inheritance, identity, and fertility, addressing both sides of reproductive decision-making and the ways we carry what is passed down. Their practice seeks to visualise the emotional spaces surrounding biology, memory, grief, and the legacies that shape womanhood. It holds multiple truths at once: motherhood as both fulfilment and loss; childlessness as both freedom and ache. Across biology, memory, and emotion, these legacies inform womanhood, belonging, and choice.

Holding Both examines what it means to inherit, not only through DNA, but also through love, care, remembrance, and the quiet transmission of values and wounds across generations, and how these inheritances shape the decisions we make when considering motherhood. Maria’s work explores the emotional aspect of inheritance and the complexities of motherhood, adoption, and care. Through painting, mark making and layering, she captures the memory of handwriting to address grief and tenderness. There is a tension between control and chaos, love and loss, as shifting expectations around motherhood and care emerge.

Paloma’s work centres on the body as a vessel of biological, cultural, and emotional inheritance, examining how knowledge of genetic history shape’s identity and agency. On Mutability explores the body as a living archive, a fragile and ever-changing entity marked by mutation and transformation. Using recycled egg cartons, she reimagines fertility and creation as acts of adaptation rather than ideals of perfection. Her work questions dominant notions of health and the “perfect” body, reflecting instead on transformation, fragility, and the politics of representation.

Maria Hatling is a South Korean–born, Norwegian–British artist based in London. After more than a decade working in fashion and design, she transitioned into a full-time studio practice five years ago. Working across painting, etching, and monotype, her practice explores identity, fertility, and motherhood through personal and intuitive mark-making. Adopted from South Korea to Norway as an infant, Hatling’s artistic sensibility is deeply influenced by her Scandinavian upbringing and connection to nature, evident in her restrained palette and deliberate gestural language. She often disrupts expectations of scale and tool, using handmade brushes, hardware-store finds, and domestic objects to create work that balances immediacy with quiet depth. Hatling has exhibited in the UK, Norway, and France, with work held in private collections in Europe and the United States. Recent highlights include training with master printer Rob White at Hausprint, participation in the Xenia residency, and commissions for Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and The Artists Information Company.

Paloma Tendero is a visual artist working across photography, sculpture, and mixed media. Her practice explores genetic inheritance, illness, and the ways in which the body carries histories that shape identity and the timelines of life. Inspired by her personal experience with genetic illness, she examines how inherited narratives influence both physical embodiment and cultural ideals of the self, often using her own body as a subject to reflect on states between wellness and sickness, the politics of representation, and the notion of the perfect body.  Tendero graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from Complutense University in Madrid and an MA in Photography from London College of Communication. She has undertaken residencies such as Xenia residency retreat (2024) Sarabande, The Alexander McQueen Foundation, London (2020), and KulturKontakt, the Austrian Federal Chancellery AIR, Vienna (2018). Her work has been exhibited internationally, including Cavour Gallery in Padua (2019), Arnolfini Arts Centre Bristol, UK (2021) and most recently at PhotoLondon and at the University College London Hospital (2025).