Entropy | Jenee Mateer

The HUB-Robeson Galleries are pleased to present Entropy, an evocative exhibition of photographs by Baltimore-based artist Jenee Mateer, on view in Art Alley from October 23, 2025, through February 16, 2026. All are welcome to attend a celebratory reception on October 23 from 4:00–6:00 p.m. in Art Alley, HUB-Robeson Center.

Mateer’s work explores time as a visible force—particularly as it manifests in the quiet transformation of her own garden. Drawing on the traditions of still life, especially the Renaissance-era “nature morte” (“dead nature”), Entropy reanimates the genre to investigate cycles of decay, regeneration, and meaning-making in both nature and art.

In her imagery, a decomposing mulch pile becomes a site of mystery and metaphor: a tangled field where shadow, silhouette, and shifting light coalesce into forms that hover between the familiar and the spectral. These works suggest that waste is not absence, but potential—a space where time, matter, and memory converge.

“The phrase you are what you eat rings true and suggests that the compost pile in my backyard is somehow a reflection of who I am—just as the waste produced by society reflects our collective desire and consumption.” — Jenee Mateer

Mateer references the laws of thermodynamics, suggesting that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, and that systems naturally tend toward disorder. Entropy, in this sense, is not an ending but a beginning: an active state of becoming. While all living matter breaks down and returns to the earth, complexity also emerges. Artists, she suggests, are like alchemists—recycling disorder into new forms, shaping beauty from residue, and giving presence to what might otherwise be lost.

Her process reflects a belief that some artifacts act on the viewer over time, generating energy in the form of thought. Through color, form, and light, they seed new ideas, circulating far beyond their original context. The video works and layered images in Entropy evoke both a metaphysical consciousness and the eternal cycles of decomposition and renewal. The work becomes a meditation on impermanence and transformation—an invitation to witness our connection to, and impact on, the world around us.

About the Artist

Jenee Mateer is a Baltimore-based photographer, video, and installation artist whose work explores perception, transformation, and the emotional undercurrents of everyday life. Her imagery draws on both historical traditions and contemporary concerns, resulting in work that is poetic, philosophical, and deeply personal. She received her B.A. in English/Modern Studies from the University of Virginia in 1987 and her M.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1996. In 2007, she joined the faculty of Towson University, where she is currently Professor of Photo Imaging and Chair of the Department of Art + Design, Art History, and Art Education. Her work has been exhibited in numerous venues, including the Hamptons Fine Art Fair, Biggs Museum of American Art, Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Jordan Faye Contemporary in Baltimore, Los Angeles Center for Digital Arts, Masur Museum of Art, Newport Museum, Rhode Island Foundation, San Francisco Art Market, Scope International Art Fair in Miami, and Texas Contemporary Art Fair in Houston. She is the author of The Animals (2012), her essays and photographs have appeared in This is Visual Poetry (2011), the 1st and 5th International Photography Annual (2012, 2018), The Photo Review (2012), Masters of Photography (2012), Philosophy of Photography, Vol. 4 (2013), and Alphabet (2016) and her photographs are in numerous private collections, including China Trust Bank. She resides in Baltimore, Maryland, with her son, Alex, and her husband, Lawrence.

For more information on this and other exhibitions, contact HUB-Robeson Galleries. Class, student organization and office visits are welcome! Email Galleries@psu.edu with inquiries. Keep up to date with HUB-Robeson Galleries by signing up for their Listserv or follow them on Instagram @hubrobesongalleries.

Contact: Robert Sparrow Jones, Curator and Senior Gallery Manager, HUB-Robeson Galleries (814) 865-2563, rkj5315@psu.edu