Mary Anna Pomonis
She Rises, 2020
Artist Statement
The title of the artwork, She Rises, refers to the spring resurrection story prevalent in Judeo-Christian cultures. The title refers to the ascent of Inanna and Persephone in the mythology of the ancient world. The resurrection story serves as a reminder that our bodies are miraculous and just as Inanna survived her trips to the underworld, we too shall rise.
The installation focuses on the eight-point star or temple rosette form of the ancient Sumerian goddess Inanna, sometimes called Ishtar or Artemis. I am fascinated by the intercessory images of the Theotokos,(Mother Mary), in my upbringing in the Greek Orthodox Church, as well as icons and stained glass windows. The light, language, and form of historically sacred artwork was designed to move the body. I want my work to move through the viewer, creating a feeling of energy and possibility in a world mitigated by quarantine, digital screens, and societal filters. My work focuses on the geometry of an architectural form and its design utilized to create an aesthetic feeling in homage to the goddesses of antiquity.
A previous version of this installation entitled, Iris Calendis, was displayed at the Lancaster Museum of Art and History in February of 2020 which closed early because of the quarantine.
Mary Anna Pomonis
She Rises, 2020
Biography
Throughout history, people have made crests, quilts, and banners to reinforce their own identity. I create artworks as personal power symbols to find faith and order in a contemporary world.
Mary Anna Pomonis is a Los Angeles-based artist known primarily for her abstract paintings utilizing commercial airbrush tools as referents to both masculine and feminine power. Pomonis has exhibited in galleries and institutions, including the Western Carolina University Museum of Fine Arts, the Torrance Art Museum, the Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois, the Lancaster Museum of Art and History, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Her artwork has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Huffington Post, the New York Times, Whitehot Magazine, and Artweek. Additionally, her curatorial projects and essays have been featured in museums and gallery spaces throughout Southern California. She is the founder and a contributing member of the artists’ collective, the Association of Hysteric Curators. The AHC has been in both national and international press as a result of their social practice projects and activism in the Los Angeles area. She is represented in Los Angeles by Ladies Room LA and in Chicago by Seer Gallery.