For an intriguing visit to a local museum over the holidays, your family may love the exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, “Suchitra Mattai: Myth from Matter,” by “a multi-disciplinary Guyanese American artist of South Asian descent.”
It is the first solo show in the District by Mattai who, in her paintings, her fibers, collages, large sculptures, tapestries and more, focuses on “others,” women and the marginalized.
The big and bright show spanning several galleries has something for everyone, including materials she has found and recycles into her works, and some worn by her family, friends, herself and others, all combining to make the display more interesting.
It has 12 historically and complementing pieces from Europe and South Asia loaned by major institutions which hang adjacent to Mattai’s works and spark conversation, thought and discussion when two pieces of the same subject are compared.
Adding bright embroidery floss, applique and beads to a classic work, Mattai’s products easily stand out in stunning results.
She practices “brown reclamation” by sewing brown thread over white Europeans who are typically the models in landscapes from past centuries. By this methodology, she demonstrates the marginalized people who have been excluded from life “as we know it.” (The partial title of one of her works.)
She pays tribute to immigrants and their contributions to society, often overlooked and submerged by societies of past centuries.
For instance, the cover of the exhibition’s catalog features “future perfect,” which Mattai made last year of embroidery floss, freshwater pearls, “found objects” and more. In it she “reimagines” Jean Honoré Fragonard’s “Young Girl Reading” (c. 1769) which hangs nearby, on loan from the National Gallery of Art.
The words in Fragonard’s book which the girl holds are obscured, while Mattai’s version includes “future” in beaded pearls on the open page, encouraging the girl to choose her own destiny, according to the label copy.
As a youngster, Mattaii learned sewing and embroidery from her grandmothers. She was born in 1973 in Georgetown, Guyana where her great-grandparents were indentured laborers, taken there from northern India to work the sugar plantations when the British ruled Guyana and India.
When Mattai was a toddler, her family moved to Canada. She attended colleges in the U.S., India and London.
A multi-disciplinary artist who prides herself on her Caribbean and Indian heritages, her artist’s statement on her website says she is “interested in how memory and myth allow us to unravel and re-imagine historical narratives.”
Her “primary pursuit is to give voice to people whose voices were once quieted by focussing on oral histories and family archives. Using both my own family’s ocean migrations and research on the period of colonial indentured labor during the 19th Century, I seek to expand our sense of “‘history.’”
Besides Mattai, the museum has a new photography exhibition by Samantha Box, and short videos of eight contemporary artists, “In Focus: Artists at Work.” Plus, there is “Remix: The Collection,” an ongoing exhibition.
At the museum shop, the softbound Mattai catalog of 112 pages with full color illustrations is $27.95.
Visitors may see the exhibit for free on the first Sunday (Dec. 1 and Jan. 5) and the second Wednesday (Dec. 11 and Jan. 8 ) of each month and the museum is open until 8 p.m. on the third Wednesday. Mattai closes Jan. 12, 2025.
1250 New York Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20005. Tuesday — Sunday, 10 a.m. — 5 p.m. Closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. Ph. 202-783-5000. Admission: $16, adults; $13, D.C. residents and those over age 70; free for members and those under age 21 and/or with disabilities.
