Exhibitions

This exhibition is a hug. The last hug Ariana was able to give her mother—the very same hug she shares with her three children—a collective, intergenerational hug with the women of her family lineage. We hope that this embrace will also reach those who visit the gallery, that it will sustain them and accompany them as they encounter these paintings, drawings, embroideries, textiles, installations, and performances that reflect Ariana’s experiences as a mother, painter, and weaver. I am earth, I am a root explores reflections on contemporary motherhood and the gender imperatives imposed on women. The artist proposes creating and nurturing as a form of resistance through which she reconstructs family memories and strengthens her bonds with her ancestors—weavers rooted in the community of Huacrachuco (Huánuco) in the Peruvian Andes—to recognize shared life stories and affirm a fluid connection with the ecosystems we inhabit and a reconnection with our origins.

The exhibition brings together works created between 2017 and 2025 that showcase creative processes ranging from painting to soft sculpture and, subsequently, textiles, as well as an exploration that began with weaving using acrylic yarn and later shifted to the use of natural fibers such as sheep’s wool. In the series of paintings Their games (2018) Ariana expresses her motherhood through color, movement, and vibration, as well as through her children’s journey of discovering spontaneity and creative freedom. A few years later, in When you hug me (2021) The two-dimensional surface of the painting expands with the presence of overflowing volumes—spirals of color that form embraces and allude to chaos and constant change.

At the same time, Ariana returns to weaving—a skill she learned from her mother as a child—and begins creating an extensive series of pieces that include works such as Wash and use (2021), Born a Caregiver (2023), He gives everything, endures everything, and hopes for everything (2023), bodies that make their presence known on the strings in the center of this room. In this group of works, one can identify the modifications made to the patterns to achieve increasingly realistic representations of female bodies and their life processes, as well as the variations in color in the acrylic wool and the introduction of natural threads. Ariana created these bodies as she came to terms with new stages of motherhood that were bringing her closer to perimenopause. For her, these textile pieces are thus a way of bidding farewell to certain moments in her life, as well as a means of evoking a community that can recognize itself in collectively facing these experiences.

The discovery of a blanket woven by her grandmother, Juana Mosquera, guided and inspired Ariana in the creation of the most recent group of works featured in the exhibition. The installation In a river, all the seeds (2025) pays tribute to her maternal lineage with a woven river that evokes the confluence of their life stories in the strength and form of the Marañón River, whose tributary feeds Huacrachuco. Meanwhile, in the performance I am earth, I am a root, she weaves her body into the earth in an act that integrates the fibers of the textile into a memory that connects to places of birth and life. River and earth are elements that recreate the connection to family memory and emphasize the bonds with the ecosystems in which we coexist—where we embrace one another, sustain one another, and recognize one another.

Giuliana Vidarte

Continuing the line of research I began for my last solo exhibition I am earth, I am a root (MUCEN, 2025) and viewing the act of weaving as an act of self-assertion, this piece focuses on celebrating and reaffirming my roots as a woman weaver, paying homage to my heritage and identity, which stem from an ancient textile tradition passed down from my ancestors in Huacrachuco, Huánuco.

“The Celebration” is a piece created out of gratitude, whose circular format evokes the very movement of celebration, the sound of joy: it is a time to celebrate the life that was sustained by generations who have made it possible for us to be here now. The eyes and mouths that appear in the piece allude to those who once cared for others; thanks to their presence, these stories continue to be woven today.

Just as carded wool, despite its strong and thick appearance, is a fragile fiber, The Celebration It has been woven from a tapestry of fragilities, which, by coming together as a fabric, support and sustain one another. My tribute is built on the acceptance of that fragility, which becomes strength through the recognition of the fabric as a network and a community. In our fragility-strength, we celebrate. In our fragility-strength, we sing, dance, and celebrate, because there are many of us holding each other up.

"Dinner's ready!" This is a common call in homes where a family lives. It's usually the mother who calls out to alert everyone else: daughters, sons, partners, grandfathers, and grandmothers. As if it were a ritual, the mother shops, prepares, and sets the table so that everyone can eat, nourish themselves, and survive. Day after day, this ritual is repeated—if all goes well—up to three times: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Is it possible to be a good mother without loving cooking, taking care of others, and taking care of the home?

With this question, artist Ariana Macedo prompts us to reflect on the role of women as mothers and all the socio-structural implications that are inherently projected onto them. Women who are mothers—whether by choice or by obligation—bear the burden of caring for their families and households: meals, cleaning, caring for children and the elderly, keeping things in order, and shopping—as if these responsibilities were innate to them. In the artist’s words: “We’re even expected to enjoy it, to the point of feeling fulfilled.”.

The isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic made the artist—like many women—feel that these tasks were even more burdensome and suffocating, as they became a constant, 24 hours a day, every day of the week. The fact is that this crisis did not begin with the pandemic, but it was certainly exacerbated by it, as it worsened the unequal distribution of responsibilities and roles in the allocation of caregiving tasks—a situation that has been historically perpetuated and has led to a vast, gendered, and stratified social divide. With site-specific, Ariana breaks the silence, submission, and isolation, transforming a dining room into a blank canvas on which to shout, vent, and protest. The artist gives furniture, utensils, and objects a new dimension, using them as a channel to project direct messages and reflections in which we can recognize so many dictates of heteropatriarchal society that subjugate women to the desires of men, the family, and capital.

Inés Hernández López

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Faced with the question of whether I could return to my profession after several years devoted to motherhood, I didn’t have a definite answer, but I did make a decision: to try to start painting again. Fearing that I might neglect my role as a mother, I told myself that only by painting would I know if I could balance both aspects of my life.

This exhibition is a testament to my attempts—sometimes imperfect, but always persistent—to rediscover my artistic expression. Each drawing and painting is the result of a deliberate search for new colors beyond the red-and-black color scheme that characterized my previous period. The finished work has not been the priority; my guiding principle was to paint in order to keep painting.

Today, looking at the body of work and reflecting on the process, I can confirm that coming back was the right decision, that the result was worth the effort, that painting and motherhood can coexist—and, even more than that, that painting is the best way to be a mother.

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