Memory is fragile, bending and reshaping over time. For the artist chosen for this month’s solo exhibition, memory is not just personal—it is collective, historical, and deeply interwoven with questions of inheritance, trauma, and resilience.
The project, born out of profound personal loss, began in 2020 with the sudden passing of the artist’s father. This moment shifted the ground beneath her feet, sparking an urgent desire to understand the past and to confront the impermanence of memory itself. As she reflects, “I feel as if I’m racing toward an invisible finish line.”
Her parents were born in Virginia, a place marked indelibly by America’s most painful chapters: slavery, the Civil War, and the long battle for civil rights. It was from Richmond’s auction blocks that hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children were sold into bondage. It was in Virginia that the Confederacy rose and fell. And it was in Virginia that resistance to integration once led entire counties to shut down public schools rather than desegregate.
Vault of Blue © Benita Mayo
What Remains © Benita Mayo
These histories were not abstractions for her family—they were lived. Fear and loneliness shaped her childhood, but love and hope were always present too, offering the possibility that tomorrow might be different. In her own words: “At the heart of it all, there was love—and a steadfast hope that tomorrow could be better than today.”
The project draws on both personal narrative and the wider context of collective trauma. Toni Morrison’s words in The Bluest Eye serve as a guiding principle: we must not “forgive and forget,” but instead “remember and do better.” Through revelation rather than silence, truth becomes visible, and healing becomes possible.
The artist’s process has been one of both therapy and creation. Over the years, she has dedicated more than 1,500 hours to understanding and untangling cycles of pain. Healing, she reminds us, begins with cleaning the wound before new tissue can grow stronger and more resilient.
Her images and words recount the fierce determination of her father—a man who carried the weight of history yet found a way to move forward against all odds. Landscapes that might seem serene at first glance hold within them quiet outrage, mourning, and commemoration. They are a call to remember, to acknowledge, and to begin the work of mending.
This exhibition is both intimate and expansive, a meditation on grief, memory, and generational resilience. It reminds us that photography is not only a means of storytelling but also an act of healing and resistance.
Colored Soldier © Benita Mayo
Benita Mayo is a visual artist based in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she is a resident artist at the McGuffey Art Center and an active member of the Charlottesville Black Arts Collective. She holds a B.A. in Rhetoric and Communications from the University of Virginia (UVA).
Mayo’s work is guided by curiosity and empathy, qualities that shape both her process and subject matter. Her photographs explore the collective female experience through the lens of a Black woman navigating grief, memory, ancestry, genealogy, and trauma. By weaving personal history with broader social narratives, she examines how inherited legacies shape identity and belonging. Rooted in storytelling and social commentary, her practice stands as both testimony and tribute—illuminating overlooked histories while creating space for dialogue, reflection, and connection across communities and generations.
Mayo was a 2025 Critical Mass finalist. She was the winner in the 23rd Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Seeing Women category and received Honorable Mention in the portraiture category. Mayo’s work has been featured in publications including Zeke Magazine, Lenscratch, Cuba Seen Issue 9, Virginia Quarterly Review, Canvas Rebel, Portraits The 27 Fine Art Book, A Smith Gallery, SxSE Magazine, Library of Congress, C-Ville Weekly 434 Magazine, and Charlottesville Tomorrow. Her work has been exhibited at various galleries including the Griffin Museum of Photography, The Center for Photographic Art (CFPA), the Center for Fine Art Photography (C4FAP), A Smith Gallery, Filter Photo, Social Documentary Network and several galleries in the Mid-Atlantic region. Her work has been recognized internationally and is held in private collections.
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@benita.mayo
Toil & Strife © Benita Mayo
