Exhibition Views of Matrilineage: The Knowledge We Carry, photos by Stacey Meineke.
Matrilineage: The Knowledge We Carry
Curated by Natalie M. Godinez and Aneesa Shami Zizzo
June 24–July 15, 2023
Open Saturdays, 1pm–4pm and by appointment
Studio 203 is thrilled to announce Matrilineage: The Knowledge We Carry, a group exhibition featuring eight Los Angeles-based artists. This exhibition celebrates the lineage mothers pass down to their children, illustrating cultural healing methods and hereditary resilience through various craft-based practices. Featuring eight artist mothers, the works on view will reference their experiences as parents and demonstrate the ideals they hope to instill in their children. Participating artists include: Emilyn Eto, Natalie M. Godinez, Lydia Tjioe Hall, Ahree Lee, Elana Mann, Alyson Toone, Patricia Yossen and Aneesa Shami Zizzo.
Mothering, often synonymous with caregiving for children, fundamentally includes caring for ourselves and our communities as well. As antiquated systems continue to unravel, we must reimagine our communities and relationships. By looking at the foundational relationship of mother and child, or primary caregiver and child, we find the crux of emotional connection, which consequently affects how each of us interact with the world. Traditionally tasked with culture-bearing duties, maternal figures share familial traditions and transmit cultural values to the next generation. Matrilineage explores the intentional use of creative practice to care for ourselves and our children, and in turn nourish our communities. Through weaving, quilting, basketry, printmaking, ceramics, jewelry and metal work, each artist reclaims their identity in motherhood in order to create a hopeful future for their children.
Each artist embraces the idea of legacy, engaging their craft discipline to liberate, heal and protect their families. Elana Mann is launching a series of silver necklaces modeled with a 1:1 scale ratio of her 3-year-old’s uterus, conceived as a means to fight the Dobbs decision. Patricia Yossen presents a series of abstract clay figurines created in collaboration with her family to work through a shared trauma. Alyson Toone’s Afro-futuristic ragdoll reclaims her grandmother’s work sewing Shirley Temple dolls to support her family as a single mother. Lydia Tjioe Hall’s works explore the intimate relationship between mother and child. Aneesa Shami Zizzo’s tapestry illustrates a personalized bedtime story for her son containing life lessons she wishes to impart. Emilyn Eto’s “Thrown: Quilted Chair,” memorializes the slow Friday evenings her neighborhood spent together during the early days of COVID. Natalie M. Godinez presents a series of prints illustrating medicinal plants, honoring healing techniques passed down through her own matrilineage. Ahree Lee’s “Timesheet: November 4–10, 2018,” depicts her daily activities in an effort to visualize the invisible and undervalued domestic labor by transforming it into an artwork with monetary and cultural value.
By engaging craft disciplines to address aspects of motherhood, each artist brings relatively invisible perspectives to light. Matrilineage challenges the idea of a patriarchal-influenced society and offers a hope-filled and empowering alternative.
Public Programs
About Natalie M Godinez
Natalie M Godinez (she/her/ella) is a Los Angeles-based artist, educator, and community advocate raised in Tijuana, México. Godinez explores memories, identity, and relationships to places and language through textiles, printmaking, and collaboration. She is an artist collaborator with AMBOS Project (Art Made Between Opposite Sides), a platform for bi-national artists to speak on border issues, where she has performed in artist interventions, has led education projects, and has coordinated humanitarian aid efforts. Currently, she works doing advocacy, youth programming, and cultural organizing at Self Help Graphics and Art. Godinez holds a Bachelor's degree in Applied Design from San Diego State University.
About Aneesa Shami Zizzo
Aneesa Shami Zizzo (she/her) is an artist and arts-based researcher in Los Angeles upcycling materials to create fiber art. Her work references the sublime and world mythologies to evoke a sense of the collective unconscious within her imagery. Zizzo holds Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in both Fiber and Art History from the Kansas City Art Institute. Zizzo’s work has exhibited nationally in galleries and museums, including the Torrance Art Museum, the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, and the California Center for the Arts, Escondido Museum, among others. She is also the co-owner and director of Studio 203, an artist-run space in Los Angeles promoting fiber art, craft-based work and social practices.