VISIONS of FLORA and Related Works from 1996 to present by MADOLIN MAXEY March 1-31 with a Gallery Night Event March 18^th 5-9pm

 This exhibit celebrating Women’s History Month is a glimpse into the creative imagination and skilled artistry of Madolin Maxey.  It is a flowering branch from the twenty five years in the flourishing garden of Madolin’s life work, more than forty years as a professional artist. 

“ Visions of Flora are just that, visions.” Madolin muses, “These paintings are how I envision the plants, flowers, and trees that I encounter.  This is how I think these Flora should be seen, listened to, and represented.  The colors are strong and bold and some may even say imagined, but the truth is that if they are not the real colors then they should be.”

The exhibit also includes a group of related paintings from the same twenty-five years.  They are botanical landscapes and floral still lifes.  “I use the flora to dance color and shapes across the canvas.  I create narratives using the objects in my studio.  The paintings invite the viewer to join in the conversation.”

Madolin Maxey is a Washington DC born artist, who has been residing in Providence RI since 1982.  She is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore MD, and the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence RI.

Maxey has produced more than 20 one-person exhibitions including those at the Providence Art Club, University of Rhode Island Feinstein Campus, Brown University Sarah Doyle Gallery, and George Mason University.  She has shown in over 30 group, invitational, and museum shows both nationally and internationally.  Madolin Maxey's works are widely collected by private individuals and corporation institutions in the United States as well as London and Devon UK, Tokyo JP, Padua IT, and Copenhagen DEN.

Although primarily a colorist painter, Madolin Maxey has built 12'-15' teahouses for solo shows in galleries, created a miniature circus out of found objects complete with flashing lights and music, and designed and constructed sets for several theaters in the years following her graduate degree.  Maxey also undertook a renegade art installation along four blocks of Wickenden Street in Providence RI.  Colorful sculptures, as many as 15 at a time which she changed every 6 months for 8 years, were drilled high onto the telephone poles.  The renegade art project led to Maxey being invited to construct painted 12' high wood and later 15' high steel sculptures along the Providence Waterfront as part of the Providence Convergence Sculpture International and First Night Providence.

Maxey now maintains a full-time painting studio in Providence.  At first glance her paintings seem to depict familiar landscapes and actual locations, yet they are only loosely based on reality.  Through the years she has done paintings and large-scale drawings of her treasured objects: teapots collected in Japan, inherited vases, an African bracelet bought in Morocco, a horse-shaped whistle made by a friend, seashells among others.  Recently Madolin Maxey produced a solo show of gym equipment paintings from her years of experience using the machines and imagining them as transformed objects or animals.

Madolin Maxey paints from memory, challenging the conventions of the medium with poetic grace and playful energy.  Her emotional reactions become a story told through color, line, and texture.

Virtual Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opmcJLuMro0