Madeline Donahue

“While Donahue draws inspiration from artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Alice Neel, and Marlene Dumas, who have all made work related to ideas of mothering, Donahue’s work should also be seen in the context of Madonna and child imagery — especially more true-to-life, playful depictions of the Christ child. Yet, Donahue did not see many of the daily realities of parenting reflected in art. [Her recent work] was borne out of Donahue’s decision to accept what these realities bring to bear on her studio practice, both the challenges and joys.  She works quickly from the experiences of everyday life, including her daughter’s desire to be around her at all times.” -Irini Zervas

Madeline Donahue (b. 1983, Houston, TX) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Her ceramic work was recently acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.  Residencies include The Wassaic Project, Byrdcliffe Artist Colony, Artshack Ceramic Residency and more recently, Interlude Artist’s Residency in Livingston, NY; a residency designed for artist families. Solo Exhibitions include “Fun House” with Praise Shadows Gallery, Boston; “Warm Up” with Artshack Brooklyn, and “Attachments” with Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects in New York. Along with Johansson Projects’ (Oakland, CA) summer group show, Community Garden, she has exhibited extensively across the US and in London. Her work is reviewed and she is interviewed in the Guardian, Hyperallergic, and Elephant Magazine, Sound + Vision Podcast, I Like Your Work Podcast, Artist Mother Podcast and more.

CV

The Art of Motherhood – Madeline Donahue captures the ecstasy and agony of being a mom | October 5, 2022 by Amil Niazi for The Cut 
“That’s the power of Donahue’s art, to have something so specific feel so universal in its story about motherhood that everyone from New York’s own Jerry Saltz to actress Busy Phillips has shared her work in their own feeds…” LINK

Portraits of Motherhood by Madeline Donahue | August 8, 2022 by Miss Moss
“I don’t think any art that I’ve seen lately has resonated as much with me as Madeline Donahue’s depictions of Motherhood. Of course, being a mom of two small kids myself. The way she captures small moments that we have all experienced – reminding you that yes it can be challenging; but it’s also wonderful, funny, fleeting…” LINK

CRITICS PICKS “Punchline”  | July 27, 2022 by Danielle Wu for Artforum
“As a student of celebrated French clown Philippe Gaulier said, ‘Once you can handle the insults, something inside you cracks and you can begin.’ If the best kind of humor is crafted from inward rage, ‘Punchline’ delivers.” LINK

“Punchline: celebrating artists who use humor in their work” | July 6, 2022 by Veronica Esposito for The Guardian
“I was largely taught a male canon in art history and contemporary art history,” she said, “and as an art student in undergrad, there was this expectation that people who identify as women or queer weren’t talked to. My work is responding to a very serious, very patriarchal art world, and thinking that I’d never be accepted by it. And that actually gave me a lot of room to just experiment and be myself.” LINK

Interview: “Painting Motherhood” | June 29, 2022 by Nadine Zylberberg for All’s Well
“As a new mom myself, I’m realizing how rare it is to find representations of motherhood in our culture that feel authentic to the messy, yet beautiful, experience of it. Madeline’s paintings, ceramics, and drawings encapsulate just that. Now more than ever, as my mind reels in despair over the idea that a woman’s autonomy—her decision to be a mother, and when and how—would ever be in question, these representations matter.”  LINK

“‘My Practice Looks Very Different Today’: 15 Artist-Mothers on Balancing Work and Family After a Year Like No Other,” | January 4, 2021 by Sarah Cascone for artnet.com
“The events of 2020 turned the world upside down for everyone. But the burden of life in lockdown has predominantly fallen on women, and on mothers in particular, with many pressured to leave the workforce entirely to focus on childcare while schools are virtual, relying on a husband’s typically higher income.” LINK

“Painting the Extreme Intimacy Between a Mother and Her Infant Child” | October 4, 2019 by Irini Zervas for Hyperallergic
“The tangle of pink limbs representing a mother and child in Madeline Donahue’s painting, “Squash” (2019) renders the figures almost indistinguishable. Their relationship’s extreme intimacy is palpable, and threatens to subsume each individual into one being.” LINK

Interview: “Madeline Donahue Paints the Joy and Absurdity of Motherhood” | Dec 5, 2018 for elephant.art
“Painting about motherhood has always been natural for Madeleine Donahue, whose first painting, created when the artist was aged fifteen, was “a large imagined portrait of my mother holding me as a child”. Many contemporary artists have made works about their relationships with their mothers—absent or present, harmonious or diabolical. Psychoanalytical interpretations of art might even suggest that all art is shaped by this fundamental relationship—whether conscious or not.” LINK

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