BIO
Maude Atlas (she/they) is a multidisciplinary queer artist based in Chicago. She’s built her foundations as an artist through photography & abstract-expressionist painting, while dabbling in mediums such as writing, music, DJing & video. Her work stems from an intuitive nature, and explores ideas such as motion, identity, & connection to the unknown. She graduated from Ball State University with a bachelor of science in photojournalism in 2020. Since then, she has turned her love for storytelling into an artistic practice. Maude has written four collections of poetry, held solo exhibitions for all of her disciplines, & participated in over 20 group exhibitions.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work aims to explore the non-linear ways our lives are built and the role institution plays in our continuous exploration. Through the use of abstraction in my paintings, along with my education in photojournalism, I am able to make relative sense of how a moment is arrived at and freeze it. Doing this not only gives me a sense of what happened, but what comes next. Expanding my practice from being a photographer into a painter has allowed me to incorporate all of my five senses in my stories — all while diversifying the visual outcomes. My goal for viewers is for them to understand how even the smallest pieces in a composition become crucial for a sense of togetherness. Within those small pieces lies mystique & unconventional beauty. Bold colors, double exposures, blurred movement, action application, and the use of negative space are longstanding methods of storytelling I have used to accomplish the ideas in my work.
