Current Shows

I am currently in 2 shows that can be viewed online, with some other powerhouse work!

Through the Eye: Women in Photography with Womenswork.Art in Poughkeepsie, NY.

And a particularly exciting online show with Shaping the Figural Gaze.

ARTIST STATEMENT VIDEO

An online response to Bustes de Femmes

“The Gagosian states that the selected group of “paintings, sculptures, and photographs on view demonstrate how the female figure has been reimagined and reconfigured by modern and contemporary artists of diverse backgrounds and traditions,” however, it features only 5 female-identifying artists out of 28 artists total. Of these 28 artists, a majority are white. This leads to an exhibit that not only is lacking in a diversity of backgrounds and traditions, but one that is also blatantly ignoring the conjunctions between race and gender.

Unfortunately, the exhibit put on by the Gagosian is only too representative of past and current norms surrounding the viewpoints society platforms for creation and consumption surrounding the figural.

We wish to counter Bustes de Femmes and the other of 1000s of exhibits like it, by presenting the works of femxle and queer identifying artists whose skill in figural portraiture demonstrates a diverse array of contemporary visions, sensitivities, and/or ideals, that usurp or unconventionally assume the traditional utilization of the male and/or dominant gazes. The goal is to address institutionalized gender roles and gendered racial stereotypes, and the subsequent sexism and racism perpetuated by them. This is in order to facilitate the interrogation and examination of the traditional motives and depictions of gender and sex, while proposing new or uncommon narratives. These ideas will be addressed from queer and femxle perspectives that are traditionally unheard from, in order to reimagine and reconstruct traditional racialized and gendered power structures upon which these institutionalized spaces were built and thrive. This is in order to combat the unequal ratio of queer and femxle art and perspectives that are being showcased within the museum and art worlds via institutions.”

Video for “What We Wrote on the Water”

While we do encourage you to visit the installation in person, that obviously is not possible for everyone, so we are making the video available for separate viewing. Please enjoy Maternal Mitochondria’s experimental video “What We Wrote on the Water”!

The installation is available by appointment in Santa Fe, NM until February 8th 2021. E-mail msagan1035@aol.com or call 505-231-1922 to schedule a viewing.

What We Wrote on the Water

Maternal Mitochondria has a new art show up with Vital Spaces arts organization! Located in the Midtown Annex, 1600 St. Michaels Drive, and available by appointment only (in order to ensure COVID-safe practices), What We Wrote on The Water is a video installation constructed from the poetry of borders, drumming in a dream, the scarce commodity of water in the desert, and gestures in ink. The installation will be available to experience from January 9th-February 8th, and there is no fee!

In a dark enclosed womb of space, the video projects over a large vase, filled with water. It features the Japanese art of suminagashi, spoken poetry, and percussive drums. The projection overlaps the glass, creating new shadows and reflections. This is an immersive experience, playing with materials such as ink and glass, and the metaphor of water as the unconscious mind.

What We Wrote on the Water explores the dialectical flow between creator and viewer, form and meaning, being both on the surface of the water and under it. The viewer leaves refreshed, having temporarily been elsewhere.

FOR APPOINTMENTS: From January 9th-February 8th, please call Isabel at 505-231-1922 or e-mail Miriam at msagan1035@aol.com.

installation art featuring poetry, suminagashi, water, glass, and drumming.

Maternal Mitochondria is a mother-daughter creative duo collaborating in Santa Fe. Miriam Sagan is a writer and Isabel Winson-Sagan is an interdisciplinary artist. Their bilingual video installation of suminagashi and poetry, Thresh/hold, premiered in an abandoned square grain silo at Studio Kura in Itoshima, Japan in 2018. They produced a poetry and suminagashi installation in Santa Fe’s Railyard Park with more than twenty participants, aged 4 to 80. The walking path at Santa Fe Skies RV Park on Route 14 is host to their Fairy Houses installation in recycled metal, which has had numerous visitors during the pandemic. For What We Wrote on the Water, they have also collaborated with local drummer Tim Brown.

Feminist Art in the Trump Era

I’m very pleased to be a part of this upcoming show at Axle Contemporary in Santa Fe!

Feminist Art in the Trump Era

juried by Lucy R. Lippard

September 11 – November 3

Feminist Art in the Trump Era is an exhibition of works by 27 New Mexico based artists that explore various feminist realities and rants. Works chosen for this exhibition from an open call to New Mexico based artists resonate with the hopefully soon- to-be-extinct Trump era. The exhibition will take place on the occasion of the 100 year anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution and the 10 year anniversary of the founding of the Axle Contemporary mobile artspace.