Maddy Inez

OPENING TONIGHT Megan Mulrooney is pleased to present Nascence, a solo exhibition of new work by Maddy Inez, on view from May 16 - June 20, 2026. In Nascence, Maddy Inez draws on plants and their cultural histories, channeling her research into extensive material experimentations in the studio. The resulting works range from anthropomorphic vessels, tendrilled wall reliefs, and preparatory watercolors, each of which are inspired by flora – hibiscus, za’atar, poppies, to name a few – that hold deep medicinal, symbolic, and historical importance. “Nascence is a show about gardening as an act of resistance,” writes Inez. “I researched the gardens and people’s relationships to plants that have been forcibly removed or displaced from their land due to colonization. The act of choosing to have a relationship with a land after enduring so much violence is such a powerful act of resistance. The choice to plant to feed your people in an unpredictable future is a choice of hope.” Many of Inez’s works take on symmetrical, upright structures with looping handles and unfurling, leaflike bases that suggest a human stance. Gaps and openings punctuate their surfaces, recalling both human features – eyes, mouths – and botanical structures alike. Her glazes are exuberant and wide-ranging, with any individual work containing both chalky earth tones and glossy, saturated purples, reds, and greens that conjure up cycles of growth and decay. In the wall reliefs, Inez compresses her botanical forms into shallow planes, where petals and stems reach outward from the surfaces. @maddy_inez #maddyinez #ceramics #ceramacist

Nascence opens today at @meganmulrooneygallery 5-8pm! This piece is based on the levant wild thyme that is used in Za’atar in Palestine and Lebanon. In Lebanon it is referred to as the herb of resistance. While working on this show I listened to a lot of D’Angelo, and while listening to The Root I thought about how the relationship between a plant and its people is conjure and root work. While making this piece and listening to the repetitive lyrics I prayed for this plant and its people. “Like the rain to the dirt From the vine to the wine From the Alpha creation to the end of time” Root Worker 43” x 18” x 18” Glazed Ceramic 2026

Ahead of Maddy Inez’s upcoming exhibition Nascence opening this Saturday from 5-8 at the gallery in Los Angeles, Maddy spoke to Philip Edward Spragley with FAD Magazine @worldoffad to discuss the innate relationship between humans and clay. Link in bio! @maddy_inez

✨Nascence✨opens next week May 16th 5-8pm at @meganmulrooneygallery Thank you to all my friends and family that have helped me with this show. Thank you for all the late night visits watching me glaze, for everyone that visited and gave me feedback, for building pedestals, for helping pack pieces, for buying my last minute iron oxide~ I am truly so lucky to have my community. And thank you to all the land stewards, educators, herbalists, and gardeners for taking the time to sit with me and talk about gardening as an act of revolution and resistance. This is just the beginning!

Today on TCI 🌾 Sculptor Maddy Inez (@maddy_inez ) speaks with writer Claudia Ross (@qlaudiahh ) about making art to survive, growing up with artists, and learning from nature. Read the interview via the link in our bio. 🪻 ID: A roundup of quotes from a conversation with sculptor Maddy Inez that read… Slide 1: “I think if the art world fell apart, if it disappeared, we’d still be making art every day. That’s a really freeing notion that helps me with my practice” Slide 2: “[My mother and grandmother] remind me that this is what we do to exist. It’s how we digest the world and think critically about the world, and it’s how we survive.” Slide 3: “My grandma turns 100 this year and I was like, ‘How do you keep doing this? You’ve lived for 100 years and you haven’t seen it grow or change,’ and her answer was, ‘You just have to keep making art. That’s how you keep moving. That’s how you keep going and how you don’t lose hope.’” Slide 4: “I’m lucky because I witnessed very strong women navigating a world that is very male driven and also very white. They taught me that you can work with people that you really love.” Slide 5: “I make art about plants. I like spending time in community gardens or with plants or cooking. I love cooking. My creative practice is tied to so many other parts of my life that other kinds of creativity can feel encouraging.” Slide 6: “I started reaching out to land stewards and education and community garden people who were working with the same ideas of gardening as an act of revolution or as an act of resistance.” Slide 7: “It has been really nice getting to know people who have similar ideas about how we’re supposed to show up for each other or what our future might look like.” Photo of Maddy by @harglees

Felix Art Fair continues today! Thank you @artsy for including @maddy_inez in your “5 Artists We Discovered at Felix” “Among the greenery on the deck of L.A. gallery Megan Mulrooney’s elegant cabana presentation, a gentle trickle can be heard. Its source is The Sower (2023), a fountain by local artist Maddy Inez. Lurching and biomorphic, the ceramic form seems to rise from the ground itself, its shimmering surface evoking bubbling earth or calcified organic matter. What could sound foreboding instead feels hypnotic: water flows calmly through the sculpture, giving the shaded installation a meditative calm. Inez is the daughter of Alison Saar and granddaughter of Betye Saar, two major artists who are towering figures in L.A.’s history, and her practice carries that legacy. Working primarily in ceramics, she creates forms that echo plant and animal life, often threading in personal references. Her ongoing series “Memory Jugs,” for instance, pays direct homage to her grandmother Betye’s references to African American folk art tradition. They function as intimate vessels that honor her family histories.“ Come join the meditative sounds of Maddy’s fountain sculpture in the midst of the cacophony of sound from the Hollywood Roosevelt’s legendary pool. #felixartfair #meganmulrooneygallery #maddyinez #maddyinezleeser

One aspect that made Salt of the Earth such a special exhibition was the ways in which the works of artists with disparate art making practices worked so beautifully in dialogue. This is perfectly highlighted with the display of a ceramic piece by Maddy Inez (@maddy_inez ) in conversation with the paintings of Nancy Nguyen (@oaht.n ) . Inez’s “Hemmed Hide” is an intimate, precious sculpture rich in earthy hues, whimsical form, and textures ranging from smooth and bumpy to wispy and porous. Stemming from her interdisciplinary practice that include sculpture and ceramics, this work is indicative of a fascination with nature, mythology, memory and ancestral magic and alchemy. This work pairs exceptionally with the otherworldly paintings of Nancy Nguyen, whose work similarly ponders ideas of nature, mythology, spirituality, and existence as well as our personal/collective relationships with such. Each of her five paintings currently on view in Salt of the Earth contain cosmic depth and showcase an dazzling array of deep thoughtful energy, otherworldly color, and fascinating shapes and forms that seem to suggest playful and mythical figures. The works of Maddy Inez and Nancy Nguyen are on view until February 28th. — 🖼️ Artworks: 1) Maddy Inez, Hemmed Hide, 2023 Glazed Ceramic 2) Nancy Nguyen, Untitled 2, 2023 Oil on Canvas

Goodbye year of the snake. You’ve shown us some of the darkest cycles perpetuated by humanity. Cycles of hate and greed. I’m grateful for my community and being able to lean on their visions of the future. I’m excited to share what I’ve been making from these conversations with land stewards, teachers, and friends in 2026. 🪱Let us all be earthworms 🪱

Goodbye Miami! Thank you for having me @meganmulrooneygallery and thank you everyone who stopped by the Nada booth this weekend. Special thanks to @concoolandcollected and @emmyhicksj !Such an honor to be showing work in the same city as my mother and grandmother and alongside so many amazing artists.

Los Angeles based sculptor and ceramicist Maddy Inez will have new ceramics included in the gallery’s NADA Miami booth. @maddy_inez Maddy Inez utilizes ceramics and sculpture to explore themes of healing and ancestral memory, treating clay as both a medium and a metaphor for collective trauma. Her works often evoke plants known for their healing properties or mythological significance, merging the spiritual with the ecological. This approach prompts reflection on humanity’s fragile yet powerful relationship with the natural world. Inez’s artistic practice is deeply influenced by her matrilineal heritage; her mother, Alison Saar, and grandmother, Betye Saar, are both renowned artists whose legacies of Black feminist and spiritual artmaking resonate through her work. This lineage informs Inez’s exploration of intergenerational knowledge and the transformative power of art as a means of healing and remembrance. Maddy Inez lives and works in Los Angeles and earned a BFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, OR. Her solo exhibitions include “Of Pith and Balm” at Harkawik Gallery, New York, and “Venus Freak” at NOON Projects, Los Angeles. Group exhibitions include “Adornment Artifact” at Crenshaw Plaza and Band of Vices, Los Angeles; “Earth House Hold” at Murmurs, Los Angeles; “Obscurity and the Unknown” at Sebastian Gladstone, Los Angeles; and the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, Los Angeles; among others. #maddyinez #maddyinezleeser #ceramics

A bit of me

Showing one of my favorite little mosaics in the group show “Eden” curated by the lovely @ms.lucid opening this Friday 7-11pm at @last_projects . A percentage of the sales will go to @translatinacoalition . Come buy art and help raise money!