First Friday Opening for 'Donna Dodson: Match of the Matriarchs'

Join the Museum for Art in Wood for the opening reception of its latest exhbition, 'Match of the Matriarchs' by Donna Dodson.

'Match of the Matriarchs' centers on a monumental, interactive chessboard featuring 32 life-size, movable chess pieces hand-carved from salvaged wood. Modeled on female archetypes and marine beings—cephalopods, cetaceans, and mermaids—Dodson’s sculptures transform the traditionally hierarchical game into a speculative arena of matriarchal power and ecological symbolism. Long coded as a test of masculine intellect and mastery, chess in this match becomes a site of reversal: the queen’s latent authority resurfaces, and new strategies come into view. Working with reclaimed wood—its ranging tones and scars visible to all—Dodson aligns chess with material memory, presenting the game as a dynamic system of multi-generational wisdom, stratagem, and transformation over domination.

Complementing Dodson’s installation are wood chess sets made by other artists alongside video works by Philadelphia-based chess champion and historian Jen Shahade, whose wry, incisive lens reclaims visibility for women in chess culture. Previously exhibited at the World Chess Hall of Fame, St. Louis, MO, and the Boston Sculptors Gallery, the project evolves at the Museum for Art in Wood through expanded programming and performance.