(2016-present)

Maternidad came about some time in mid-2016 when friend, former classmate, and fellow Artist, Ann Schnake, approached Anciso about producing work related to childbirth.  Schnake and Anciso collaborated previously on work for the John and Cynthia Miller Wellness Center at the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center in Martinez, CA.  This time, Schnake requested work that would fit the perinatal (obstetrics and postpartum) ward.  This was timely as Anciso was already a few months pregnant with her first child, unbeknownst to Schnake at the time of the request.  

 

Anciso would create several pieces for the Maternidad series, ranging from stages of childbirth, to post-birth, breastfeeding, as well as images of parenthood and grandparenthood.  One of the pieces, Uníon de Madres (2016), was completed less than two weeks before Natalia gave birth to her son, Leonardo.

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Work in the Maternidad series is part of the Permanent Collection of the Labor and Delivery and Postpartum Wards at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center in Martinez, CA.  Pieces of Maternidad were recently on loan and on view at Natalia Anciso: ASPIRE | ASPIRAR at O'Kane Gallery of the University of Houston-Downtown and at NATALIA ANCISO: They Try to Bury Us at the Joseph Gross Gallery at the University of Arizona (Tucson).  The latest work of the series, Sobrevivir (Land of the Free)  (2018) was on view at INTO ACTION in Los Angeles, Diffused Reflections at Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco, and Radical Departures, Abruptions, and Continuations at Dream Farm Commons in Oakland.  Work from this series was most recently on view at the El Corazon exhibition at the Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science, and Technology and the Radical Anachronisms group exhibition at The Westin Denver Downtown as part of the 2018 Society for the Study of American Women Writers Triennial Conference.  The series is still ongoing.