Petra Mattheis

Petra Mattheis (born 1967 in Moers) is a German Artist und Photographer. She became known for her artistic engagement with the topic menstruation.

Biography Mattheis studied communications design at the University of Applied Sciences Wiesbaden and graduated in 1994 with a diploma. She studied Fine Arts at the Akademie für Bildende Künste Mainz from 2002 to 2006 and finished with a diploma as well. From 2007 bis 2009 she was a student in the master class of Joachim Blank at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig.

Works With her website Become A Menstruator as well as with installations and prints, Mattheis investigates menstruation in an artistic, playful approach, questions cultural-historical developments and today's way of dealing with one's own body in our society. Each motif of the blood-red prints in her series BAM – Become a Menstruator corresponds to a fertile year in the life of the artist. While each print is a handmaid original, the size of the edition corresponds with the sum of the periods she had during this year. Thus, Mattheis not only addresses a taboo, her works also receive an autobiographical character.

Solo exhibitions 2006: Überwiegend Schwarz auf Weiß, Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden 2009: Pulsierender Pfirsich, Kuhturm, Leipzig 2011: Hinter den Worten, Gallery Queen Anne, Tapetenwerk, Leipzig 2015: Arts and Crafts Week at Panty Camp, Gallery The Grass is Greener, Leipzig 2017: Riding the Red Tide, Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig 2018: Become a Menstruator Booth, Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig 2019: Shark Weeks, Atelierfrankfurt, Frankfurt 2022: Wantalon App, Parcours #zeitzseeing 2023: Am Fluß, Kalktor, Zeitz

Selected group exhibitions 2004: Zwischen, Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden, with Ilka Meyer 2011: East of Fresno, group exhibition for contemporary art, The Hatchery Art Space, Badger, California 2012: Schläft ein Lied in allen Dingen, Bellevuesaal with Klaus Lomnitzer, Wiesbaden

Awards and scholarships 2006: Förderstipendium der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz 2007: Preis der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz 2016: Project grant from the state of Rhineland-Palatinate 2021: Denkzeit-Stipendium, Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen 2022: Modul C, BBK Innovative Kunstprojekte Projektförderung 2022: Neustart Kultur, Stipendium 2022: Work grant, Stiftung Kunstfonds 2023: Award for "Gespräche über Kohle" (Conversations about coal) 2023: Project funding for Parcour "Schatten" (Zeitz) of the Wantalon App, Kunststiftung Sachsen-Anhalt

Publications Nassauischer Kunstverein e.V.: Petra Mattheis und Ilka Meyer. Catalog of the exhibition Zwischen – Petra Mattheis, Ilka Meyer, 9 May to 13 June and 29 June to 11 July 2004; Part of the exhibition series Perspektiven der Zukunft. With contributions by Christian Rabanus, Botho Strauß and Ilka Meyer. NKV, Wiesbaden 2004 Mithu Sanyal: Vulva, Die Enthüllung des unsichtbaren Geschlechts, Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, 2017, S. 202–203, S. 210 Barbara Streidl: feminismus, Reclam-Verlag, 2019, S. 12–13 Mithu Sanyal: Identitti, consonni Verlag, Spanien, 2023, Titelcover MDR Documentary by Maksym Melnyk „East“: Accompanying the development of „Am Fluß“, Zeitz 2023