July 24 - August 12, 2021
Lauren Powell is pleased to present Hope Floats, with work by Madeline Donahue and Rachel Klinghoffer - on view July 24 - August 12, 2021. Following a year where aspiration was more difficult to identify than ever before, the power of art has prevailed and shown brighter than ever. Adversity comes in many forms and will certainly return again, but though perseverance light returns, life returns, and particularly in this seaside town - hope floats. This notion shines through the varied mediums of both Madeline Donahue and Rachel Klinghoffer’s works - two artists whose life experiences as mothers inform their work in very unique ways, and remind us that attitude is everything.
Relaying the complex, joyful, and absurd world that is motherhood, Madeline Donahue’s vibrant autobiographical pieces are both humorous and relatable. Madeline uses her personal experiences, reminding us that once you are a mother, you will never be alone again, and it’s best to develop a strong sense of humor. Her process depends equally on drawing, painting, and ceramics - with the work often morphing from one medium to the next like the daffodils visible in both the actual window of the gallery and the painting of a window view. It’s all about the natural, vulnerable FEELING behind each scene and less about the desire for obsessive perfection she may have strived for pre-motherhood.
Rachel Klinghoffer’s paintings are treasure chests, revealing personal history and memories below the surface, mapped out in the materials list of each piece. She combines personal ephemera (used lingerie, souvenirs and studio refuse) to create prismatic, self-narratives that recycle Klinghoffer’s own joyful memories into hope and optimism for the viewer through the color and movement within each piece. These saved trinkets and mementos are generously passed onto the viewer, completely transformed, sometimes unrecognizable, but the memory remains. The colors reference the Romantics, particularly the Hudson River School with its emphasis on subtleties and range of light. These relic-like assemblages reflect the artist’s personal connection to femininity, craft-making, Judaism, romance, pushing the definition of painting.