title: Petra Mattheis
text: # 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
  
  ## 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
  
  * 2016: Projektstipendium des Landes Rheinland-Pfalz
  
  ## 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
  