THIS WEEKEND!

Join us on Good Friday for the opening of Matrescence – a group show of four artists exploring the physiological, societal and emotional situation of motherhood. 

#Matrescence is having a cultural moment. Not yet in the dictionary, the term was coined in the early seventies by medical anthropologist Dana Raphael, and picked up thirty years later by author Lucy Jones. Today there is a live campaign to get this word more widely recognised as a descriptor for the process of becoming a mother. When mothers have been made since the dawn of life on Earth, why don’t we have a word for that? 

This exhibition delves into the raw, multifaceted experience of motherhood. From the fervent hope of conception and the silent grief of loss, to the overwhelming, transformative reality of nurturing new life. 

Through textiles, painting and installation, emerging artists Hayley Reynolds-MacLean, Mimi Rose, Molly Ardanowski, and Emily Stevens offer a space for shared witness and vital conversation about this universal yet often unspoken human experience. 

About the artists

MIMI ROSE 

Mimi Rose is a UK artist based in the Lake District who graduated from Goldsmiths  University in 2025. Rose is a mixed media artist who currently specialises in textiles that she  naturally dyes to create quilts and tapestries. Her practise explores visual art forms to  express the intimate, personal and awe-inspiring scenes that she has felt from her life  experiences. Rose’s quilts and tapestries are pigmented using foraged dyes, minerals, food  waste and more. Through this practise she uses materials to convey a visual scene, delving  into the deeper feelings beyond standard forms of verbal communication – using imagery as  a non-linear language. Rose’s most recent work addresses her experience regarding an  ectopic pregnancy. Her practise is used to heal and connect to the child she lost, using  appliqué to form a composition of characters and symbolism, narrating her conception of the  afterlife.  

HAYLEY REYNOLDS-MACLEAN 

Hayley Reynolds-MacLean rekindled her love of art whilst living in East Sussex during lock  down. Her work explores the experience of ‘m/other’ as a mum of two whilst reflecting on her  long journey to make that a reality. Hayley’s practice embraces texture by combining acrylic  and oil painting with craft-based materiality to produce surfaces that feel raw, naïve, and  imperfect. Visible brushstrokes, unprimed canvas, puncture points, and the fallibility of  materials are encouraged and exposed, deepening the narrative of the work. Pushing  against any form of perfection, Hayley’s work speaks of a memory, something unfinished,  gently hovering in that space between holding and release. Hayley will graduate from  Goldsmiths University in 2027. 

MOLLY ARDANOWSKI

Molly Ardanowski is a London-based artist, graduating from Goldsmiths University in 2025.  The majority of her works shown are produced with oil paint. The work includes objects and  figurines that she feels resonate with Western child-rearing. After her abortion three years  ago, Ardanowski works to translate her own experience and to investigate grief, abortion,  and motherhood together politically. Her work approaches the subject with vulnerability,  intentionality, and vigour, building saturated oneiric surfaces with expressive layered mark making, and intense sensitivity to light. Ardanowski is interested in how we experience  personal spaces through memory and future projection, how we tie possible futures to  tangible things, and how we experience our grief through them. ‘Culturally, we can better  visualise and conceptualize inanimate objects, like toys coming to life, than a miscarriage or  an abortion’. Ardanowski questions the material standards we are expected to meet to be  seen as valid mothers and looks towards a feminism that allows us to both stand by and  grieve our abortions without shame.  

EMILY STEVENS 

Emily Stevens is a UK artist based on the South Coast who received an MA  in Painting from the Royal College of Art in 2022. Steven’s practice involves painting,  collaging, drawing and writing to create abstract figurative images. Often her paintings  include layered block colour, retaining a visual innocence, sometimes using painted text to  add more dimensions of connection. A selection of Stevens’ paintings draws from her lived  experiences of motherhood, revealing an intimate and candid dialogue between maternal life  and creative identity. Stevens’ introspective approach allows the audience to connect  emotively with her work, from reflections on mothering stereotypes to maternalism and  personal self-discovery. Stevens’ use of colour acts as an synesthetic experience to both  herself and the viewer, often she layers colour, building a visual contrast to form a seemingly  autobiographical dimension.  

Visit:

Opening night:

Friday 3 April 6pm – 9pm

All welcome

Continues: 

Saturday 4 April 11am – 6pm

Sunday 5 April 11am – 4pm

See you there!