Lauren Powell Presents:

~ Madeline Donahue ~

Managing Motherhood on paper

Relaying the complex, joyful, and absurd world that is motherhood, Madeline Donahue’s vibrant autobiographical drawings are as pleasing to the eye as they are the soul. Madeline uses her personal experiences and gives us a glimpse inside, reminding us that once you are a mother, you will never be alone again. Her practice depends equally on drawing, painting, and ceramics. She often sees the work morph from one medium to the next bending and contorting the same way parents do in their daily lives as their children grow. For her it is about the natural, vulnerable FEELING behind each scene and less about the desire for obsessive precision she may have strived for prior to this personal life shift. You can FEEL the freedom in the drawings paired perfectly with the tension of commitment to childcare. Lucky for us, we get to enjoy the fast, fun, and loose results of the current environment. All thanks to Madeline’s children and her amazing attitude towards this time in her life, ruled by a large amount of patience because in her mind, who truly knows if it will ever happen again? Embracing where we are at in all we do seems a worthwhile take-away. Madeline’s humor and perspective of otherwise challenging scenarios is EXACTLY what we need (I literally laugh out loud while scanning the characters’ interactions in each scene). What if we all looked at life with a similar courage? 

Learn more about Madeline’s work here: http://www.madelinedonahue.com/ . 

Madeline Donahue, born in Houston, TX, is currently based in Brooklyn, NY. She has exhibited with Public Gallery, Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, Field Projects and The Every Woman Biennial in Manhattan; Paradice Palase, Underdonk, and Greenpoint Terminal Gallery in Brooklyn; TJ Boulting in London and Elephant Gallery in Nashville, TN. Her paintings were included in Making (It) Work at California College of the Arts. Her debut Manhattan solo exhibition, Attachments, at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects was reviewed in Hyperallergic. She joined SHFAP with NADA Fair 2020. She has a limited edition screen print with Kayrock Screen Printing Brooklyn. She has been interviewed in Elephant Magazine and on the podcast Sound & Vision. Madeline is an upcoming artist-in-residence at Interlude Residency, was an artist-in-residence at The Wassaic Project in Wassaic, NY and at Byrdcliffe Artist Colony in Woodstock, NY.

Clown Alley, 2020

14” x 11” | Color pencil on paper

Slingshot, 2020

14” x 11” | Color pencil on paper

Untitled (Hair), 2020

14” x 11” | Color pencil on paper

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