Painting
Maggie King
Through material means
and retinal effects, I create otherworldly spaces and scenes in my paintings
that investigate notions of the mystical feminine.
Visual phenomena like space, color, light, and material have endless potential to translate material sensations into psychological states. I do everything I can in my studio to harness the inherent vitality of the materiality of painting. I use a variety of reflective and matte materials: glass beads, interference paint, shiny stained wood, enamel, pouring medium, homemade gesso, and cellulose paint. Light activates surfaces and creates shifting color and spatial relationships. This retinal flux imbues the objects with a kind of otherworldly agency; they act as thresholds from one space to another space. This kind of material animation can mirror the spectacle of femininity, the complex performance of gender and act as a space to investigate huge questions about perception and what it means to be human and have a body.
These spaces are feminine spaces. They track my relationship with notions of mystical femininity and how these notions intersect with fetishized gender roles. Through the creation of personal codes for fetishized gender roles, I create new notions of mystical femininity that re-instill the feminine body and my body with agency.
Visual phenomena like space, color, light, and material have endless potential to translate material sensations into psychological states. I do everything I can in my studio to harness the inherent vitality of the materiality of painting. I use a variety of reflective and matte materials: glass beads, interference paint, shiny stained wood, enamel, pouring medium, homemade gesso, and cellulose paint. Light activates surfaces and creates shifting color and spatial relationships. This retinal flux imbues the objects with a kind of otherworldly agency; they act as thresholds from one space to another space. This kind of material animation can mirror the spectacle of femininity, the complex performance of gender and act as a space to investigate huge questions about perception and what it means to be human and have a body.
These spaces are feminine spaces. They track my relationship with notions of mystical femininity and how these notions intersect with fetishized gender roles. Through the creation of personal codes for fetishized gender roles, I create new notions of mystical femininity that re-instill the feminine body and my body with agency.
