HARTFORD, CONN.- Glass, stone, and resin compose sculptural works by Nevine Mahmoud that simultaneously evoke the human body, inanimate objects, and organic forms. They are at once natural and manufactured; alive and disembodied; inviting and disturbing. The nine works in the exhibition are arranged across the gallery space by the artist, who is deeply engaged in exhibition design, to propel visual associations and conversations between the works. Nevine Mahmoud / MATRIX 188 is on view at the Wadsworth February 3–May 1, 2022.

“Mahmoud’s seductive, alluring forms spark curiosity as they continually shapeshift before your eyes,” said Patricia Hickson, the Wadsworth’s Emily Hall Tremaine Curator of Contemporary Art. “From animal to vegetal to mechanical, the fluid connotations of her sculptures connect a surreal sensibility with feminist fearlessness.”

Mahmoud works with rigorous materials, including hard stone, a traditionally male-dominated craft due to the intense physicality of manipulating the medium, and more recently, glass—both cast and hand blown. Fueled by the artist’s interest in unusual material combinations, vibrantly-colored glass objects with slick, shiny finishes contrast with the matte surfaces and muted tones of marble.

Throughout the exhibition, Mahmoud rejects the traditional, white display pedestal as a mode of display. Instead, the artist designs specific alternatives including metal hardware that harnesses objects to the wall, a plastic patio chair that presents a set of nearly-three-feet-wide red lips, and hard-edged, plywood steps.

In addition to tactile surfaces, Mahmoud’s sculptural installations offer an exploration of nature and the body. At once sensual, ambiguous, and menacing, they evoke lips, breasts, and buttocks as much as fruit, flowers, mechanisms, and toys.

In a 2018 interview with Art of Choice, Mahmoud stated: “I think it is my way of inscribing a kind of authorship into the works. I am a female artist, I identify that way and have been identified by culture as such. I think women artists are under-represented and historically overshadowed by male artists. So, I want to write the female form, from my perspective, continually into the history of sculpture. Many have done this before me, and I intend to join forces.”

Mahmoud has noted specific influences in this feminist art history, including Louise Bourgeois (French American, 1911–2010), Alina Szapocznikow (Polish, 1926–1973), and Kiki Smith (American, born Germany, 1954), who have also worked with the fragmented female form. Smith’s Daisy Chain (1992) is currently on view at the Wadsworth alongside Harriet Goodhue Hosmer’s (American, 1830–1908) marble sculpture Zenobia in Chains (1859), two floors up from the MATRIX gallery—an opportunity for visitors to explore connections between these and Mahmoud’s works.

Nevine Mahmoud (born 1988 in London, England) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She received her BA from Goldsmiths, University of London and MFA from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Mahmoud’s first institutional solo exhibition is currently on view at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. Other recent exhibitions include Rosa in mano, a three-person exhibition at the Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro in Milan; The Artist is Present, curated by Maurizio Cattelan, at the Yuz Museum in Shanghai; Dreamers Awake: Women Artists After Surrealism at White Cube, London; Romancing the Mirror at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, FL; Holly Coulis, Nevine Mahmoud & Christina Ramberg, Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong; The Poet, the Critic and the Missing at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and MADEMOISELLE at the Centre Régional d’Art Contemporain Occitanie in Sète.