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Spotlight Series | Renaissance Babies & Images of Motherhood
MFA Spotlight Series | Renaissance Babies & Images of Motherhood with Lauren Amalia Redding & Natalie Velez
Join MFA docent and Ph.D. student Natalie Velez and artist and writer Lauren Amalia Redding for a thought-provoking gallery talk that bridges art history and contemporary perspectives on motherhood imagery.
Drawing from her scholarly paper, Ugly Babies: Deconstruction in the Way We Look at a Work of Art, Velez will explore the often-humorous perception of “ugliness” in Renaissance depictions of the infant Christ, shedding light on historical artistic conventions. Redding will examine the materials and techniques used in these works, revealing how artistic choices shaped their visual language.
In honor of Women’s History Month, this discussion offers insights from both a female art historian and a female artist, reexamining the portrayal of motherhood—one of the most enduring themes in Western and Christian art—through a fresh and nuanced lens.
MFA Spotlight Series | Renaissance Babies & Images of Motherhood with Lauren Amalia Redding & Natalie Velez
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
11:00 AM–12:00 PM
FREE for MFA Members; Included with the cost of admission for Not-Yet Members
Registration required.
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ABOUT LAUREN AMALIA REDDING
Lauren Amalia Redding (b. 1987) is an artist and writer based in Naples, Florida. She received her B.A. from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and her M.F.A. from the New York Academy of Art in New York, New York. She creates drawings that use meticulous draftsmanship to intertwine the imagery and symbolism of astronauts with art history, exploring how philosophy and culture—which propel technology and the humanities in equal measure—launch each starsailor into their new frontiers. Except for large-scale mixed media works on DuraLar and Mylar, she primarily draws in silverpoint, a pre-Renaissance drawing method in which the artist uses a piece of silver wire to make marks across a gessoed surface.
Lauren has exhibited and curated her drawings across the United States, and was an artist-in-residence at the Florence School of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy. Her artwork has been featured in Fine Art Connoisseur, HuffPost Arts & Culture, and CanvasRebel. She has been a guest on podcasts such as Art Grind and Art Materials Advisor. She is an arts and culture writer for Gulfshore Life magazine in Southwest Florida, and a contributing writer for The Blue Review, based in New York City, and PaintGuide, based in Hong Kong. In 2018, she and her husband, the sculptor Brett F. Harvey, relocated to the Gulf Coast after nearly ten years living in New York City, where she worked jobs ranging from a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to refining sculpture surfaces in Jeff Koons’ studio. Prior to the birth of their son in 2023, Lauren taught drawing extensively and had two exhibitions in 2022 alone: Interstellar Insulation at Pensacola State College in Florida’s Panhandle, and Interstellar Ascendants at MIFA Gallery in Miami. Lauren currently balances caring for her child full-time with showing at Method & Concept in Naples, Florida. Recent highlights include exhibiting with Manhattan’s the Pen + Brush, and the acquisition of four of her drawings by Indiana University’s renowned Kinsey Institute.
ABOUT NATALIE VELEZ
In 2009, Natalie Velez moved from St. Petersburg, Russia to St. Petersburg, Florida. Natalie credits her relocation for opening a new world for her: that of American contemporary art and how it can alter the ways in which we visualize and conceptualize the world.
Natalie earned her B.A. and M.A. degrees from the State University for Culture and Arts in St. Petersburg, Russia. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in philosophy and aesthetics in visual art from the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, headquartered in Maine (IDSVA). In her research, she explores the intersection of politics and cross-cultural art collaborations.
Natalie’s professional experience includes working as an international education and business consultant, art gallery owner, and educator of arts and philosophy. She presented her work on the relations of arts, aesthetics, and philosophy during her residences in Mexico and Italy, as well as at institutions such as the University of Tampa, Eckerd College, and the Museum of Fine Arts. She is invited to speak at the 60th International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University and present at the 11th in vivo Dubrovnik Conference on the Philosophy of Art at The Inter-University Centre in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Images:
Marco Palmezzano, Italian, 1460-1539, The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, c. 1530, Tempera on panel, Extended loan from a private collection
Master of the Greenville Tondo, Italian, active c. 1454-1513, Adoration of the Christ Child by Mary and Joseph, c. 1510, Oil on panel, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Vance Bishop
