Catherine LeComte Lecce
MFA ’23 Photography
Recalcitrance explores the complex interplay between emerging selfhood as a mother and societal expectations through self-portraiture and the gel image transfer process. Historically, women, particularly mothers, have been pressured to project a continuous facade of happiness and fulfillment. This societal expectation invalidates feelings of frustration and exhaustion, stigmatizing those who deviate from this ideal.
These pressures have fractured my identity, rendering me both invisible and marginalized as I navigate my new role and the complexities of maternal ambivalence. This work is a response to these fractured experiences, shedding light on the multifaceted dimensions of modern maternal identity.
Catherine LeComte Lecce is an interdisciplinary artist whose creative practice focuses on photographic processes, exploring themes of memory, motherhood, and identity from a feminist perspective. Her current work frequently employs the gel image transfer process and other techniques to highlight the often-overlooked aspects of the postpartum experience, while examining the intersections of contemporary parenting practices and feminist ideas to uncover the complex layers within these subjects.
Her work has been showcased in numerous group exhibitions across the Greater Boston Area and beyond. She was the 2024 Winter/Spring Artist-in-Residence at The Umbrella Arts Center in Concord, MA. Catherine was recently selected for a shared studio space at the center, extending her stay through 2025.
