Virginia Mahoney
Cradle, acrylic and words/ink on strips of reclaimed paintings (on paper), woven into reclaimed food net, 2024
Artist Statement
Virginia Mahoney creates art that echoes the body. Evocative or grotesque, ambiguous yet assertive, the forms are built using elaborate, tedious, and meditative processes -- extended hand work which can spark thematic openings or generate mental notes. In the work’s wide range of media, strong materiality provides a visceral invitation to content. Mahoney’s use of written or embroidered text is plainly narrative or even dubiously poetic. Some of her recent series have been in the form of garment-like pieces (Vested Interest, Dickeys and Collars), shield-like forms (Shielded State) reminiscent of PPE, and specter-like figures (Specters) that expose the undercurrents of social and political behaviors. Using reclaimed supplies and re-purposed earlier work, the artist makes a concerted effort to maintain a sustainable practice.
Her most recent series, “Holding Thoughts,” confronts uncertainty with open-faced admissions of tentativity. Mahoney exposes fears and doubts with handwritten recordings of past sketchbook notes in woven container-like forms as holding tanks and evidence. The act of writing or stitching words feels affirming and almost permanent. This is a contemplative act of remembering, honoring, and preserving, processing uncertainty, change, and ruminations on advancing age and the inevitable. Mahoney tries to hold on to where she has been with vessel-like forms that reach out into space in an effort to assert and affirm power, self, mark, and agency.
Artist Bio
Virginia Mahoney holds an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BA from the University of Florida. She has exhibited in solo or two-person shows at Bromfield and Fountain Street Galleries in Boston as well as in regional and national juried exhibitions in the eastern US. Mahoney’s work has been reviewed in Artscope Magazine and featured in Juniper Rag (v.3), and online in The Arts Fuse, Hyperallergic, Canvas Rebel, Boston Voyager and WBURArtery. Her work is in private collections and the Lancaster Art Museum (PA). She works in her 14’ x 26’ basement home studio in southeastern Massachusetts.
It Weighs on Me, repurposed paintings on paper, words, reclaimed food net, thread, 47x12x12in, 2024
Am I There Yet?, repurposed paintings on paper, words, reclaimed food net, steel, thread, 50x39x34in, 2024
One-on-One, repurposed paintings on paper, words, reclaimed food net, thread, copper 29x22x13in
Look Back to Go Ahead: 4-12-98 to 3-14-01 repurposed paintings on paper, words, reclaimed garden net, 83x27x9in
Revisit: 3-14-01 to 5-31-02, marker/words on repurposed paintings on paperr, reclaimed food net, 50x7x7in, 2024
Opening 6-3-02 to 7-9-03, repurposed paintings on paper, words, reclaimed food net, steel, thread, 46x15x10in, 2024
All the Rabbit Holes 1, (installation) reclaimed food net, words, watercolor/acrylic, repurposed paintings on paper, steel/copper, ink/graphite, 50x36x40in (variable), 2023
All the Rabbit Holes 2, (installation) cut repurposed paintings on paper, food net, words, steel/copper, ink/graphite, thread, 72x26x26in (variable), 2023
Sometimes it Gets Dark, reclaimed food net, repurposed paintings on paper, acrylic, ink, words, thread, steel, 47x12x10in, 2023
What if… 2, reclaimed food net, watercolor, repurposed paintings on paper, words, thread, steel, 48x13x13in, 2023
What if… 1, reclaimed food net, repurposed paintings on paper, watercolor, thread, steel, 32x13x13in, 2023
Elizabeth's Memory, food net, watercolor , repurposed paintings on paper, thread, steel, 25x14x9in, 2022
Waiting, food net, watercolor, repurposed paintings on paper, thread, words, steel, 34x14x9in, 2022
Stop, food net, watercolor, repurposed paintings on paper, words, thread, 18x14x12in, 2022
Anxious, food net, watercolor, repurposed paintings on paperr, words, thread, copper, 24x11x8in, 2022
Press & Media
The Arts Fuse January 2024 Visual Arts Review: “Burning Down the House” –A Female Chorus of Concern by Kathleen Stone
Artscope “Harmonizing Art and Data: Miebach & Mahoney’s Undercurrents at Fountain Street” by Claudia Fiks (Sept-Oct Issue 2023)
The Herald News (Fall River, MA) Art Beat: 'Bridges' at The Narrows in Fall River links communities, personal experiences August 5, 2023 Don Wilkinson, Contributing Writer
Artscope March/April 2023 A Remarkable Collection (review of “Labor of Life: Textiles and Fibers” by Claudia Fiks)
Fiber Art Now Summer 2022 feature: Yarn, Rope, String, juried by Michael F. Rohde
Juniper Rag V3 Curated Artist, March 2022
Artscope Jan/Feb 2022 A Time for Fresh Air (Review by Brian Goslow, Managing Editor)
Artscope Jan/Feb 2021 Arts For Everybody (Photo and mention in review by Suzanne Volmer)
Hyperallergic March 29, 2019 A View from the Easel Studio photo and description (scroll down to view)
Artscope Nov/Dec 2019 Textual Healing (Photo and paragraph in review by J. Fatima Martins)
WBUR Artery Nov. 13, 2018 (photo in review by Pamela Reynolds)
The Woven Tale Press Website Review (written by Richard Malinsky, Arts Editor)
Boston Voyager July 3, 2018 (photos and write-up)
Exhibitions
Solo and small group exhibitions:
2025
Holding Thoughts (Solo), Boston Sculptors LaunchPad Gallery, Boston, MA
2024
Burning Down the House: Women and Art in an Uncertain World, Part 1: Brickbottom Gallery, Somerville, MA
Part 2: P.E.G. Center for Art and Activism, Newburyport, MA
2023
Undercurrents: Virginia Mahoney + Nathalie Miebach Fountain Street Gallery, Boston
Cut it Out invitational exhibition Twiggs Gallery, Boscawen, NH
Beyond Binary Grimshaw-Gudiewicz Gallery of Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA
2022
Dream of a Common Language (Invitational) PEG Center for Art and Activism, Newburyport, MA
Partners in Art (Four invited “Art Couples”) Bancroft Gallery at South Shore Art Center, Cohasset, MA
Shielded State Bromfield Gallery Solo 2022 Winner Exhibition
2021
8 Visions 2021 Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA
Material Witness Fountain Street Gallery with Sylvia Vander Sluis
2020
Solo Show: Vested Interest, Cotuit Center for the Arts, Upper Gallery
Recent Juried Group Exhibitions
2025
Materiality: Memory in Cloth regional juried exhibition, CAA@Canal Gallery, Cambridge, MA
2024
Democracy Under Siege national juried exhibit, Hera Gallery, Kingstown, RI
Stand international juried online exhibition, Art Fluent
Free Speech: Art & Activism LexArt, Lexington, MA
Danforth Annual Juried Exhibition Danforth Art Museum, Framingham, MA
Untangled: Original Fiber 6 Bridges Gallery, Maynard, MA
Selections: A Line, A Link, A Web Surface Design Association online exhibition
This is America Scollay Square Gallery at Boston City Hall, Boston, MA
PULP! Virtual Exhibition on the website of Juniper Rag
Here & Now Art Fluent international online exhibition of nine artists
2023
Limitless Translations: The Artist as Storyteller Fountain Street Gallery Core member group exhibition
Bridges The Narrows Center for the Arts, Fall River, MA
Open Studios on the Sidewalk DATMA (Massachusetts Design Art & Technology Institute) New Bedford, MA
Used National Juried exhibit, Attleboro Arts Museum, 86 Park St., Attleboro, MA
Sculptural Elements Mary Cosgrove Dolphin Gallery at Worcester State University, Worcester, MA
Lasting Impressions Gallery Twist, 1963 Mass Ave., Lexington, MA
100: Marking the Attleboro Arts Museum’s Centennial Surface Design Association at Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA
Interconnected: A Fiber Show Mary Cosgrove Dolphin Gallery at Worcester State University, Worcester, MA
Labor of Life: Textiles and Fibers Arlington Center for the Arts, Arlington, MA