NinaJohnson

In Madeline Donahue’s Circle, a mother encloses her baby in a flesh connection of pinks, the two of them separate from a world colored red. Born in Texas and based in New York, Donahue paints, draws, and works in ceramics. Her subject is pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period—physical experiences that are both surreal and deeply intimate. The exhibition “Present Tense” presents new and never-before-seen pieces inspired by artists such as Otto Dix, Alice Neel, and Henri Matisse. Connecting daily experiences with popular culture, the works in this show create a portrait of Donahue’s process, “taking the shame, chaos, comedy, intimacy, joy, abjectness of my body and of being a mother,” she says, “and making art from it, then making art about the artmaking in that context.” —Jeanne Malle