This summer, from June 20 through Wednesday, Sept. 25, the Kniznick Gallery of the Women's Studies Research Center is hosting Suzanne Hodes' collection of pieces entitled Family Matters: Three Generations of Women. The collection on display in the gallery is only a small portion of Hodes' life's work. Hodes is originally from New York City, though she has lived in the Boston area for many years. Both metropolitan regions have left their mark in some of the small details of her paintings and char- coal work. The backgrounds of the pieces in Family Matters provide an abstract urban setting-apartments and small spaces. Sometimes the image could represent an actual memory of a place, but some backgrounds are vague, swirling around the primary characters to create feeling rather than fact.

Contrary to her past styles, Hodes' current exhibition at Brandeis is far more intimate. The artist is well-versed in social and political commentary as shown by her previous works depicting topics such as environmental catastrophe of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the 9/11 tragedy. Family Matters takes up most of the floor and ranges from charcoal pieces to bright paintings. Every piece is tender and truthful in its depiction of the women in her family.

One painting in particular, "Memory of Mother in Her Apartment at Dusk," displays a layered deep purple skyline beyond a window. The artist's mother stands to the side of the frame next to a work table, as if waiting for her daughter to finish capturing the scene. The viewer is brought into the small world created by the pot of flowers and the lamp on the table, but the city world outside that enclosed space is just as important. One world cannot be appreciated without the presence of the other; the world outside holds infinite possibilities because there is the small, safe place to land.

Each of the women in Hodes' work is shown in what the viewer must assume is their natural state. Hodes captures their expressions before they alter them to a more socially acceptable state. One of the more striking pieces, "Metamorphosis," a charcoal and pastel work, is also the only nude. The rest of her work involves bundled-up figures, with bodily shapes obscured by many layers and robes. In "Metamorphosis," however, the middle-aged subject sits directly facing the viewer with hands folded, mouth neutral, in an attitude of complete acceptance of femininity without pretense.

When Hodes' pieces include motherly figures fully clothed, however, the result is somehow more intimate. Each moment captured is relatable for every per- son with a mother or a grandmother. For the series of works entitled "My Mother Three Times," the viewer peers through three doorways into a small apartment kitchen. The mother figure bends over the stove and the counter, unaware of any other living thing. This is not a depiction of the ultimate maternal moment in the kitchen; it is a true moment of a woman in her private life. The viewer is a voyeur; the woman does not look up or perform for others.

One of Hodes' brightest paintings, "Mother in Her Orange Robe," is a perfect moment in time. Unlike her other pieces, the subject, "Mother," is almost smiling. Her hand grips the edge of a counter and seems to walk toward the viewer. There is a suggestion of possibility of motion in her other hand, resting actively by her side in the painting. Hodes creates warmth in this work not just in the color palette of the orange robe but in the feeling inevitable in the viewer that they will be welcomed into this woman's world.

Part of Hodes' feminism in her work is that she does not shy away from wrinkles or imperfections in the women. There is more strength in slight vulnerability than in smooth skin. Her paintings and charcoal drawings are like magnifying glasses that the viewer uses to peer into a delicate moment. However, even more beauty exists if the viewer makes a mental connection between Hodes' family, and the viewer's own memories of maternal figures.