I don’t know if it’s just my postpartum brain or my particular brain in general, or this strange post pandemic early motherhood life, but I often come across someone's work somewhere—and then I am obsessed. That's the case with our Episode 2 guest, Ashley January, whose artwork I viewed somewhere and was inspired to continue following and supporting her career.
So much so that I begged my husband to purchase one of her pieces for me as a gift after the birth of our third child. Supporting other artists is something I obviously care very deeply about, and I'm so grateful to have encountered Ashley's work and to be able to support her ongoing career here and in our home. You can listen to the episode on Spotify and Apple.
Ashley creates contemporary paintings informed by her maternal experience. Exploring themes of preeclampsia, premature birth, and birth trauma, her newest body of work continues to address the Black maternal mortality and morbidity crisis in America. Ashley became the first recipient of the Women's Caucus for Art, 2022 Emerging Artist Award, and was selected as a finalist for the 2022 Artadia Chicago Award.
In January 2023, Ashley had the second installment of her solo exhibition, “Human/Mother/Black” displayed at Western Illinois University. Most recently, her works were featured in the New York Group show “Fruits of Labor —Reframing Motherhood and Artmaking” at Apex Art.
Her work has also been featured across the U. S. and internationally, as well as within clinical spaces. Tufts University's School of Medicine's Center for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice has acquired paintings from her series.
Her paintings have also been featured in the television series Kings of Napa on the OWN Network, and she's fittingly won many awards for her work. And through all this, she strikes me as someone who remains deeply committed to her art practice and its role in her activism.
When asked about her sentiments towards Ashley's work and practice, Dr. Joy West, an OB GYN at Roseland Community Hospital in Chicago, said:
“It is fitting that your work, now installed at Roseland Hospital, will reach the women most impacted by birth trauma, the underserved, the systematically excluded, the forgotten. They will be uplifted simply by seeing themselves in your beautiful art. I am certain of this. Thanks for creating and sharing all aspects of ‘Human/Mother/Black’.”
Upcoming this year, Ashley will showcase paintings with Cynthia Corbett Gallery from her new series “Environments of a Heavy Joy” at Expo Chicago and in the group show, Neighbors South Shore Arts.
She lives in Chicago with her family while working from home and her studio at Manna Contemporary. You can find information about purchasing one of her pieces here.
Recommended Reading
My good friend Cindy DiTiberio’s article The Math Of Motherhood: The Motherhood Penalty for her wonderful Substack
is a fascinating look at what we really sacrifice when we become mothers.In Praise of Interruption by Amanda Montei for
feels like a pertinent read, especially since my second novel centers around interruption. Amanda asks the important question: “What's your image of the writer's life and how does it compare to your life?”Nicole Haroutunian went on the Cut + Paste radio show and shared about her new novel Choose This Now (in stores now). Highly recommend listening!
Let’s Get More Childcare Stories Out There by Rebecca Gale for
. Rebecca wants help finding people to apply for New America's Child Care Reporting Grants!From Dirt, an essay by Camille T. Dungy for Emergence Magazine, includes lovely thoughts like, “Where there appears to be only dirt, there may be the root system of some kind of insistent thriving.”
One Organization To Know About: Black Mamas Matter Alliance
The Black Mamas Matter Alliance is a national network of Black women-led and Black-led, birth and reproductive justice organizations and multi-disciplinary professionals, working across the full-spectrum of maternal and reproductive health. Learn more about it here!