Beth Grossman, Adoration of the Magi, 2003, Wood, gold leaf

Our Mother Mary Found

Saturday, August 19, 2006—Monday, April 30, 2007
Smith Gallery of Jewish Arts and Culture, Gallery 362
Free Exhibition

This exhibition re-contextualizes the story of Mary by asserting her Jewish origin as part of her identity. This project revisits the story of the iconic "Madonna," and represents her as a woman who embodies two faiths. Ten rustic wooden household tools collected in Italy are gilded with inscriptions of Jewish prayers that correspond to fragments of Mary’s life. "Our Mother Mary Found" conveys the more pragmatic reality of a woman whose daily labor as a mother and a faithful Jew gave birth to a prophet and nurtured a revolutionary.