Drawing on her experience as a textile designer and her family’s artistic heritage, Susan Maddux investigates the relationships between fabric, painting, and sculpture. If some of her longer pieces evoke the folds of kimonos, for example, it’s not a coincidence. Tapping into both her Hawaiian upbringing and Japanese heritage, the artist creates vibrant works that drape on the wall like elegant cloaks hung up after a walk.
A small piece titled “Mantle” is redolent of the historical clothing worn to keep the shoulders warm. Other works feature conceptual or metaphysical names, such as “Flourish” and “Thrum.” Maddux sometimes stacks the bunches of folds several feet high, mirroring human proportions so that, while abstract, there is a nuanced reference to the body and the timelessness of textiles.
With thick canvas folds, the artist emphasizes the power of repeated gestures and motifs, occasionally incorporating patterns and plumbing the tension between softness and firmness and what is concealed or revealed. She’s currently experimenting with the addition of different materials and new patterns following time spent at the RONDO art residency in Mexico City.
See more on the artist’s Instagram.
