Lydia Panas Turns Grief into Art with 'Letters to My Mother'
In 2019, Lydia Panas began her project 'Letters to My Mother' while she was at the American Academy in Rome, shortly after losing her mother. This collection combines large photographs, videos, and drawings on tracing paper and vellum, using lipstick to explore the ideas of presence and absence. It includes twenty-five drawings, nine pigment prints that are 46 x 38 inches, and ten videos. Panas has exhibited her work at venues like the Brooklyn Museum, the Phillips Collection, and the National Portrait Gallery in London. Her art is held in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. She has written three monographs and divides her time between a Pennsylvania farm and New York City.
Key facts
- Lydia Panas created 'Letters to My Mother' during a 2019 residency at the American Academy in Rome.
- The series emerged after the death of Panas's mother.
- The work includes drawings, photographs, and video.
- Lipstick is used as both mark and metaphor.
- The series comprises 25 drawings, 9 pigment prints, and 10 videos.
- Panas has exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, Phillips Collection, and National Portrait Gallery, London.
- Her work is in collections at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago.
- Panas has published three monographs: 'The Mark of Abel', 'Falling from Grace', and 'Sleeping Beauty'.
Entities
Artists
- Lydia Panas
Institutions
- American Academy in Rome
- Brooklyn Museum
- Artists’ Space
- Phillips Collection
- Corcoran Gallery of Art
- Palm Springs Art Museum
- Art Museum of the Americas
- Allentown Art Museum
- Sheldon Museum
- National Portrait Gallery, London
- National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh
- Kunstlerhaus Bethanien
- Museum of Modern Art, Tbilisi
- Zendai MoMA
- Museum of Fine Arts Houston
- Bronx Museum
- Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago
- Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego
- The New Yorker
- The New York Times Magazine
- Hyperallergic
- PDN
- French Photo
- Die Volkskrant
- GEO Wissen
- Haaretz
- Boston College
- School of Visual Arts
- New York University
- Whitney Museum
- CFEVA
- MASS MoCA
- Banff Centre for the Arts
- Kehrer Verlag
- Conveyor Arts
- MW Editions
- Lenscratch
Locations
- Rome
- Italy
- Pennsylvania
- New York City
- Brooklyn
- London
- Edinburgh
- Tbilisi
- Chicago
- San Diego
- Houston
- Palm Springs
- Allentown
- Washington, D.C.