Like Mother Like Daughter celebrates two women artists who are connected to the Bay of Plenty through Captain Gilbert Mair: his wife Eleanor Katherine Sperrey, and their daughter, Katherine Airini Vane.
Sperrey was an acclaimed portrait artist in the 1880s, who trained in Melbourne and Rome, before returning to New Zealand to establish her studio on Lambton Quay, Wellington; no small feat for a single woman at that time.
She painted many prominent figures of the day including George Grey, Harry Atkinson and John Ballance.
Her Maori portraits were also highly praised, particularly of women and children.
Sperrey married Captain Gilbert Mair in 1888 and had two children, John and Airini. Sperrey (EK Mair as she became known), died in 1893.