JAYNE MATRICARDI: MOTHERSCAPE

/ Buchanan Partners Gallery @ Hylton Performing Arts Center/

Jayne Matricardi: Motherscape

April 5 - May 22, 2022
Buchanan Partners Gallery @ Hylton Performing Arts Center, Manassas

Exhibition Overview:

Jayne Matricardi: Motherscape at the Buchanan Partners Gallery in the Hylton Performing Arts Center features a selection of the artist’s paintings, mixed media works, and poetry which explore the psychological landscape of motherhood. The exhibition shines light on the hidden struggles of motherhood and reckons with the mythologies and societal expectations placed on women who raise children. The works in Motherscape also attempt to create a refuge of meditative space where the challenging and contradictory aspects of motherhood may be heard and held.

Originally from Baltimore, Jayne Matricardi holds a BA in Painting and Art History from the University of Virginia, an MA in Education from George Washington University, and an MFA from George Mason University School of Art. She has been living and working in the Washington DC area for over twenty years and she has been teaching studio art in the Fairfax County Public Schools system since 2001. 

Artist Statement:

When I became a mother, I became a landscape. Flattened and silent, I became a backdrop to my children’s everyday lives and sleepless nights. But beyond that, I also became a vast space as my body and being composed an entire world for my young children. Hence, my “motherscape” is a space of opposing forces: reduction and expansion, isolation and connection, anxiety and bliss, rage and love. Through paintings, video, mixed media and a book of poetry, this exhibition unveils hidden struggles of motherhood, explores the metaphor of mothers as beasts of burden, questions motherhood myths, and reckons with the concept of scientific motherhood. Consciously situating my art practice in a feminist sphere, I hope to spur critical discourse and genuine conversations about the very real, but often silenced or ignored challenges of motherhood. And ultimately, through this exhibition, I attempted to  create an open and mindful space for difficult and contradictory aspects of motherhood to be heard and held.

Artist website: www.jaynematricardi.com
Instagram: @jaynematricardi_artist