Mother's Daughters / Hannah Jordan i Mable Ni

Mother's Daughters examines the complex relationships of belonging, femininity, and domesticity. In this two-person exhibition, Hannah Jordan and Mable Ni use printmaking as a means to explore their personal experiences of womanhood and motherly connection.

Hannah Jordan uses color and pattern as forms of abstraction to camouflage the female body from the male gaze. Patterns within her work are sourced from her mother’s garments and home decor to symbolize her understanding of femininity. The figures within her work are posed to mimic the gestures of mythological women in Western canonical paintings that reflect societal preferences in the appearance of women’s bodies. The repetition of these mythological women throughout art history drives the need for multiplicity within her work. Printmaking, patterning, and collage fundamentally rely on the multiple to accomplish their intended visual effect. By combining these technical elements in the artwork, Hannah acknowledges women’s history through the making.

Mable Ni uses food as a love language and as an act of care. Growing up, affection from her mother was often shown in gestures through meals and small dishes. Through depictions of food and hands, Mable conveys the complex emotions that her family’s cooking evokes and the care that goes into doing these actions. The artwork presents food as a narrative and a cultural avenue of communication between generations.

Hannah Jordan and Mable Ni are in Wrocław on a one-month study visit resulting from a bilateral agreement between the E. Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. 

Curator: Zuza Dyrda

Hannah Jordan is an artist from Cleveland, Ohio, who specializes in collage, printmaking, and installation. She received a BFA in Drawing and Painting from The Ohio State University in 2021. Her work is shown nationally, including a solo exhibition at Skylab Gallery in Columbus, Ohio in 2024. During her time in Columbus, Ohio, Hannah was awarded a Greater Columbus Arts Council Funds for Artists Grant and completed a fellowship at Columbus Printed Arts Center. Hannah currently resides in Knoxville, Tennessee. She is an MFA Printmaking Candidate at the University of Tennessee and Associate Director of Gallery 1010. In 2026, Hannah received the Windgate Fellowship from the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN, and will complete a curatorial internship with the Arts and Culture Alliance in Knoxville, TN.

Mable Ni is a Chinese-American artist based in Knoxville, Tennessee, making prints, ceramics, and communal food experiences about personal acts of care and facets of Asian identity. She was born and raised in Spartanburg, South Carolina and influenced by the memories of growing up in her family’s Chinese restaurant. Mable is passionate about preserving her family recipes through book making, collaborative printing, and creating community food events highlighting Chinese cuisine. Her most recent work was exhibited in SUSTENANCE: Interweaving Food & Identity at North Seattle College Art Gallery in Seattle, WA and Unapologetically Fuzhounese at Accent Sister Gallery in New York City, NY. She received a BFA from Converse University in 2024. Mable is currently pursuing a MFA with a concentration in Printmaking at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.