Meet the Artists: Session 1
Madison Donnelly, Rei Xiao, and Samantha Joy Groff
Madison, Rei, and Samantha will be in residence at Fountainhead from January 7 to February 4, 2026.
Madison Donnelly
Sponsored by Leomi Foundation
Madison Donnelly is a sculptor, new media, and installation artist exploring themes of ownership, ideology, and private property. Her practice examines the psychic impact of systemic neglect, ranging from the unkempt human body and rented apartments to animal and planetary neglect. Much of her work stems from her complicated relationship with her mother, articulated through a shared language of building, home renovation, and carpentry. Donnelly graduated in 2018 from the University of Utah with a BFA in Sculpture Intermedia and in 2023 earned an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University, New Haven, CT. Selected exhibitions include Common Landscapes (2026) at ACUD Galerie, Berlin, GE; Tin There (2025) at Ely Center of Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT; Urban Contours (2024) at The Art Gallery at Brooklyn College, New York, NY; Garden Magic (2024) at Overlap Gallery, Newport, RI; and Eros is an In-Between (2023) at Rift Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA.
Rei Xiao
Sponsored by Leomi Foundation
Rei Xiao’s practice explores trauma and multiplicity, informed by their Chinese-Turkish lineage, childhood isolation, and displacement. Self-portraiture, memory, and metaphysical elements shape liminal spaces where human, animal, and object intersect as hybrid beings in their work. Xiao earned a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (2019–2023) and studied at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London (2022). Recent exhibitions include the solo exhibition The Flea and the Acrobat (2025) at Fragment Gallery, New York, and group exhibitions at September Gallery, Kinderhook, NY; The Macedonia Institute, Ghent, NY; the Muskegon Museum of Art as part of The Bennett Prize 4: Rising Voices; and A Collector’s Story: Taviloğlu Collection (2024) in Istanbul, Turkey.
Samantha Joy Groff
Sponsored by Leomi Foundation
Groff’s paintings capture the duality of hard living and deep religious yearning within a rural female experience. Drawing on her upbringing in a Mennonite community in Pennsylvania, she uses figure paintings to process personal tragedies and unpack the cultural mystique of the Mennonites. The women she features are often antagonistic and emotionally indulgent. Her practice flirts with Appalachian Fatalism, the cultural mindset of hopelessness in many towns like hers. Samantha received her MFA from Yale School of Art and earned a dual undergraduate degree from Parsons School of Design in integrated fashion design and film studies. Select Exhibitions include Ángeles Agrela, June Canedo de Souza, Æmen Ededéen, Samantha Joy Groff, Teresa Murta, Daniel Pitín, Nicodim, New York (2026); Prophecy of the End, Nicodim, New York (2024, solo); The Ballad of the Children on the Czar, Galeria Nicodim, Bucharest (2024); HUNTRESS, Half Gallery, Los Angeles (2024, solo).
