Good Mother Gallery is proud to present, "Morality / Mortality", a four-person group show curated by Luis Pinto and featuring works from artists Samantha Rosenwald, Eleni Berg, Maya Djiji, and Diana Martinez. Morality / Mortality" explores existence and the societal structures that guide human behavior and mechanisms of understanding, specifically in terms of the moral principality and the duality of belief systems. There are multiple frameworks that provide structure and guide action, oftentimes suppressing basic rights and principles.
"Morality / Mortality" explores such frameworks as they relate to feminine identity. For example, a woman's bio-political freedom over her body and experience of self-image as perceived by others' conservative or liberal mindsets. Belief is often categorized and these categorizations, like good and evil, can result in a conflict of self. These ideals are impermanent, they are constantly in a state of flux - being influenced by society and political goals.
Samantha Rosenwald grew up in Southern California where she received her BA in Art History from Vassar College in 2016 and her MFA from California College of the Arts in 2018. She has exhibited in the San Francisco Art Market, and the Seattle Art Fair. Samantha's work has also been featured in Voyage LA, New American Paintings, and Art Maze Mag. Rosenwald's work pokes fun at preconceived notions of self-image through the comic styled illustrative works. Samantha considers her work as surrealist feminism with underlying themes of body dysmorphia and social anxiety that are explored through images of bugs and exaggerated caricatures.
Eleni Berg is a Bay Area native and received her BFA in Ceramics from California College of the Arts in 2019. Eleni works in ceramics and painting to convey concepts of death and resurrection as seen through the cycles of life. Her work also explores pre-conceived notions of beauty in today's society, and the manipulated ways in which food is treated in Western culture, and how detached we are from its origins as a society.
Maya Djiji was raised in the Los Angeles area and is receiving her Individualized BFA degree from California College of the arts in 2020. Maya's bright primary colored works bring us to a place of infancy where death and impermanence are masked by the sublime. Her work references bright and colorful characters from her imagination. Maya primarily works in the mediums of painting, fabrics, and ceramics.
Diana Martinez grew up in South Florida she received her BFA in painting from San Francisco Arts Institute in 2018. A painter, illustrator, and readymade installation artist, Diana mostly works with ideas from her childhood taking figures and media from the 90s and 00s ephemera. Diana then twists them to fit into her traumatic past representing these moments through bright and bold objects. Gender roles and coming of age are concepts Diana takes into account when creating her works.
Morality / Mortality" opens this Saturday, May 11th, from 7 pm to 10 pm. 408 13th st. Oakland.
