Terina Sciarrotta, "Unfurling"
2023
Oil on Panel
My work is a response to my own experience as a bi-cultural mother; it aims to increase the representation of motherhood-focused work and offer a family-lensed perspective. During naptimes and after bed, I scramble to get through a ritual of “getting in the zone” so I can effectively create something honest that digs into my Māori heritage as a way to reach some sort of community, or something that captures fleeting moments of caregiving as a way to bring “Mommy-art” into serious art world spaces.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I explore my identity as a bi-cultural mother through a visual language whose main characters are light and figures. I anchor emotion and narrative with representational figures and settings while inviting viewers to wander within loose rendering, blurred edges, and powerful color. My work aims to respond to my own experience as a bi-cultural mother, while also increasing representation of motherhood-focused work and a family-lensed perspective. My flat and stark patterns are drawn from the visuals of my childhood; the Māori weaving and wood carving motifs of my grandparents. My work often depicts everyday domestic scenes and sometimes uses Māori patterns to take the viewer into a liminal space that is neither reality nor abstract, colonial nor indigenous, traditional nor contemporary; always something in between. My work is at the intersection of identities not directly relatable to all viewers but originates from an experience most mixed-race Americans understand.
ARTIST BIO
Before moving to New York City, Terina, a Māori-American artist from Lā’ie, HI studied portraiture and figurative art at Brigham Young University- Hawai’i. She took color and drawing courses in San Francisco, CA. Terina has exhibited work in group and solo settings online and in Brooklyn, NY with organizations like the Brooklyn Waterfront Artist’s Coalition and St.HROUDA Gallery. Publications include art magazine, ALL She Makes, 2022, and Awa Wahine, Issue Rima, 2024.
2023
Oil on Panel
My work is a response to my own experience as a bi-cultural mother; it aims to increase the representation of motherhood-focused work and offer a family-lensed perspective. During naptimes and after bed, I scramble to get through a ritual of “getting in the zone” so I can effectively create something honest that digs into my Māori heritage as a way to reach some sort of community, or something that captures fleeting moments of caregiving as a way to bring “Mommy-art” into serious art world spaces.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I explore my identity as a bi-cultural mother through a visual language whose main characters are light and figures. I anchor emotion and narrative with representational figures and settings while inviting viewers to wander within loose rendering, blurred edges, and powerful color. My work aims to respond to my own experience as a bi-cultural mother, while also increasing representation of motherhood-focused work and a family-lensed perspective. My flat and stark patterns are drawn from the visuals of my childhood; the Māori weaving and wood carving motifs of my grandparents. My work often depicts everyday domestic scenes and sometimes uses Māori patterns to take the viewer into a liminal space that is neither reality nor abstract, colonial nor indigenous, traditional nor contemporary; always something in between. My work is at the intersection of identities not directly relatable to all viewers but originates from an experience most mixed-race Americans understand.
ARTIST BIO
Before moving to New York City, Terina, a Māori-American artist from Lā’ie, HI studied portraiture and figurative art at Brigham Young University- Hawai’i. She took color and drawing courses in San Francisco, CA. Terina has exhibited work in group and solo settings online and in Brooklyn, NY with organizations like the Brooklyn Waterfront Artist’s Coalition and St.HROUDA Gallery. Publications include art magazine, ALL She Makes, 2022, and Awa Wahine, Issue Rima, 2024.
2023
Oil on Panel
My work is a response to my own experience as a bi-cultural mother; it aims to increase the representation of motherhood-focused work and offer a family-lensed perspective. During naptimes and after bed, I scramble to get through a ritual of “getting in the zone” so I can effectively create something honest that digs into my Māori heritage as a way to reach some sort of community, or something that captures fleeting moments of caregiving as a way to bring “Mommy-art” into serious art world spaces.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I explore my identity as a bi-cultural mother through a visual language whose main characters are light and figures. I anchor emotion and narrative with representational figures and settings while inviting viewers to wander within loose rendering, blurred edges, and powerful color. My work aims to respond to my own experience as a bi-cultural mother, while also increasing representation of motherhood-focused work and a family-lensed perspective. My flat and stark patterns are drawn from the visuals of my childhood; the Māori weaving and wood carving motifs of my grandparents. My work often depicts everyday domestic scenes and sometimes uses Māori patterns to take the viewer into a liminal space that is neither reality nor abstract, colonial nor indigenous, traditional nor contemporary; always something in between. My work is at the intersection of identities not directly relatable to all viewers but originates from an experience most mixed-race Americans understand.
ARTIST BIO
Before moving to New York City, Terina, a Māori-American artist from Lā’ie, HI studied portraiture and figurative art at Brigham Young University- Hawai’i. She took color and drawing courses in San Francisco, CA. Terina has exhibited work in group and solo settings online and in Brooklyn, NY with organizations like the Brooklyn Waterfront Artist’s Coalition and St.HROUDA Gallery. Publications include art magazine, ALL She Makes, 2022, and Awa Wahine, Issue Rima, 2024.