Maddy Inez utilizes ceramics and sculpture to explore themes of healing and ancestral memory, treating clay as both a medium and a metaphor for collective trauma. Her works often evoke plants known for their healing properties or mythological significance, merging the spiritual with the ecological. This approach prompts reflection on humanity's fragile yet powerful relationship with the natural world. Inez's artistic practice is deeply influenced by her matrilineal heritage; her mother, Alison Saar, and grandmother, Betye Saar, are both renowned artists whose legacies of Black feminist and spiritual artmaking resonate through her work. This lineage informs Inez's exploration of intergenerational knowledge and the transformative power of art as a means of healing and remembrance.
Her recent works belong to her Fire Follower Series. Per the artist, "These works are a continuation of my Fire Follower series. Fire-followers are a classification of plants that require fire and smoke to germinate in California. I often think of this concept of the preservation paradox: who decides what the best way to care for land is when colonization erased the people who held the knowledge to do so? These wildflowers that inspired the work (Matilija, Phacelia, Whispering Bells, and Fire Poppy) not only demonstrate that these lands have always had a relationship to fire, but also the power of new life from ash. [Some of my works] are based on the Phacelia plant. These flowers are a vibrant purple/blue with dark purple veins running through their petals that only bloom after a fire. These flowers can be rare because they only respond to the heat of the fire, but in the aftermath of a wildfire, you’ll see them covering mountains. I love the idea that they can lie dormant for years, and once the fire has taken everything, they will bloom with vigor and beauty. Violet Plume is titled after the giant purple bloom of the large flowering phacelia species. Scorpion Seed is named after the Scorpion Weed Phacelia that has tendriled blooms that resemble a scorpion's tail."
Maddy Inez lives and works in Los Angeles and earned a BFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, OR. Her solo exhibitions include "Of Pith and Balm" at Harkawik Gallery, New York, and "Venus Freak" at NOON Projects, Los Angeles. Group exhibitions include "Adornment Artifact" at Crenshaw Plaza and Band of Vices, Los Angeles; "Earth House Hold" at Murmurs, Los Angeles; "Obscurity and the Unknown" at Sebastian Gladstone, Los Angeles; and the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, Los Angeles; among others. She will have a solo exhibition at Megan Mulrooney in 2026.