Maddy Inez: Nascence

Megan Mulrooney is pleased to present Nascence, a solo exhibition of new work by Maddy Inez, on view from May 16 - June 20, 2026.

In Nascence, Maddy Inez draws on plants and their cultural histories, channeling her research into extensive material experimentations in the studio. The resulting works range from anthropomorphic vessels, tendrilled wall reliefs, and preparatory watercolors, each of which are inspired by flora - hibiscus, za'atar, poppies, to name a few - that hold deep medicinal, symbolic, and historical importance.

"Nascence is a show about gardening as an act of resistance," writes Inez. "I researched the gardens and people's relationships to plants that have been forcibly removed or displaced from their land due to colonization. The act of choosing to have a relationship with a land after enduring so much violence is such a powerful act of resistance. The choice to plant to feed your people in an unpredictable future is a choice of hope."

Many of Inez's works take on symmetrical, upright structures with looping handles and unfurling, leaflike bases that suggest a human stance. Gaps and openings punctuate their surfaces, recalling both human features - eyes, mouths - and botanical structures alike. Her glazes are exuberant and wide-ranging, with any individual work containing both chalky earth tones and glossy, saturated purples, reds, and greens that conjure up cycles of growth and decay. In the wall reliefs, Inez compresses her botanical forms into shallow planes, where petals and stems reach outward from the surfaces.

Each work begins with research into a specific plant's medicinal and cultural history. "I researched plants brought over to the States through the transatlantic slave trade and from places facing colonization today, such as Sudan, Lebanon, and Palestine," she explains. Inez studies botanical drawings before translating them into watercolors of her own, which in turn serve as the inspiration for clay forms that are ultimately transformed by the unpredictability of the kiln. Black-eyed peas, okra, sesame, and wild thyme appear throughout the exhibition, plants whose movement across borders tells stories about oppression, resistance, and hope. Works referencing Palestinian wild thyme, for instance, draw on its legacy as an "herb of resistance": "I admire the ability of this plant to grow in rocky, seemingly unsustainable environments. It's adaptive and resilient," says Inez. Sudanese hibiscus, which appears in several works in the exhibition, is known as "the flower that waits and remembers. It endures the pain of its people and waits for peace."

This body of work also emerged from an interest in the artist's own familial history. While working as an archivist for her grandmother Betye Saar, Inez discovered that her great-great-grandmother was a midwife during and after slavery, having taken part in a vital tradition of Black midwifery. Inez imagined what healing plants might have been in her great-great-grandmother's garden, thus resulting in a broader investigation into the gardens of the displaced. The works in this exhibition therefore read, in some sense, as speculative reconstructions of what such a garden might have looked like.

In Nascence, Inez positions gardening as an act of resistance, a way to reestablish relationships between bodies, plants, and history. This is mirrored in her increasingly figurative forms, with which she utilizes the familiarity of the vessel - a shape long used to represent both gods and humans - to encourage a sense of stewardship. "The title Nascence comes from my interviews with land stewards, educators, herbalists, and gardeners. We talked about plants that symbolized resilience to them and about a future we believed in. After researching how agriculture has been weaponized by colonization and being witness to these cycles of greed and violence, these conversations gave me hope. I saw that the revolution we are building, one seed at a time, is just in its nascency. The word in plant terms means the moment before a bloom, showing signs of future beauty."

Maddy Inez lives and works in Los Angeles and earned a BFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, OR. Her solo exhibitions include "Of Pith and Balm" at Harkawik Gallery, New York, and "Venus Freak" at NOON Projects, Los Angeles. Group exhibitions include "Adornment Artifact" at Crenshaw Plaza and Band of Vices, Los Angeles; "Earth House Hold" at Murmurs, Los Angeles; "Obscurity and the Unknown" at Sebastian Gladstone, Los Angeles; and the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, Los Angeles; among others. At Expo Chicago 2025 with Megan Mulrooney, she won the Barbara Nessim Curatorial Prize, and several of her works are included in the Depaul Museum Art Collection. This is her first solo exhibition with Megan Mulrooney.