Pull Quote
Through painting, Maggie Evans uses repetitive, uniform imagery to examine the human propensity toward collective behaviors and an intrinsic desire for belonging.
Biography
[Savannah, GA :: b.1980, Denton, TX]
MAGGIE EVANS is an artist based in Savannah, Georgia. She currently uses painting, drawing and installation to examine human collective behavior and the hierarchies, homogeneity and social divisions that result.
Maggie has shown her work in fifteen solo exhibits, over fifty group shows and has won a number of awards, including Best of Category for Installation at Artfields 2018 (Lake City, SC) and the 2017 Western Bureau Art Prize (San Jose, CA). Reviews and publications include The Washington Post, New American Paintings and Manifest Gallery’s INPA 6. Artist residencies include The Hambidge Center for the Arts (GA) and Central Trak (TX) as well as a full fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center. In 2011 she was awarded a Chinese Government Scholarship that granted her a studio and stipend for ten months at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, China. She has been invited to lecture on her work at a number of institutions including Indiana-Purdue University and the University of Texas, Dallas.
Maggie holds an MFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design (2008) where she is currently a Professor of Foundation Studies. In addition to her work as an artist, she performs regularly as a professional jazz singer and bassist
Artist Statement
Parallen Narratives
Western art has long emphasized the uniqueness of each human being. But beneath myths of rugged individualism lie identical human compulsions that transcend cultural divides. The need to self-organize into hierarchical belief systems and the desire to be part of a group surfaces and resurfaces regardless of geographical and historical boundaries. Yet this need for direction and inclusion is a direct contradiction to the individuality celebrated as the defining characteristic of what it means to be human.
In my work I use repetitive, uniform imagery to examine the personal, yet universal struggle between the search for individuality and the need to belong. Nebulous sameness is more important than establishing specific locations. Endless rows of homogenous buildings contrast sparse, undefined interiors. Yet we are vaguely aware that these ubiquitous structures are filled with individual narratives that we all share.
Curriculum Vitae
EDUCATION
2008 MFA in Painting, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA
2003 BFA in Illustration, Utah State University, Logan, UT
SELECT SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022 Ferrara Showman Gallery, New Orleans, LA (upcoming)
2021 Intermission, J. Costello Gallery, Hilton Head, SC
2020 Parallel Narratives, J. Costello Gallery, Hilton Head, SC
2019 Solo Exhibit, J. Costello Gallery, Hilton Head, SC (upcoming)
2018 Collective Behavior, Mason Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
2017 Status and Sameness, J. Costello Gallery, Hilton Head, SC
Solo Exhibit, The Cube, Visual Art Exchange, Raleigh, NC
2016 Hierarchies and Displacement, Gallery 621, Tallahassee, FL
2015 Human Hierarchies, Flashpoint Gallery, Washington D.C.
2014 Status, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 New Year, New Art, Ferrara Showman Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2020 Please Form a Straight Line, Blue Star Contemporary, San Antonio, TX (upcoming)
2019 Gathered IV, Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia, Atlanta, GA
News from Nowhere, deFINE Art invitational group exhibit, Gutstein Gallery, SCAD, Savannah
2018 Art in an Age of Anxiety, Arts Guild of Sonoma, Sonoma, CA
ArtFields 2018, Lake City, SC
2017 Gathered III, Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia, Atlanta, GA
Place, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
ArtFields 2017, Lake City, SC
Is Art Work? Alcove Gallery, Spartanburg Museum of Art, Spartanburg, SC
Histories and Memories, Tom Thomas Gallery, Indiana University East, Richmond, IN
Foundations Faculty Drawing Exhibit, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA
2016 Old and New: The Art of Savannah (invitational), Jepson Center for the Arts, Savannah, GA
Paper Works! Alumni Exhibition, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA
Art Rise Savannah: Members Only Exhibition, Non-Fiction Gallery, Savannah, GA
Lightweight, Weave Shed Gallery, Hambidge Center for the Arts, Rabun Gap, GA (curator: Lisa Alembik)
SELECT COLLECTIONS
Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN
Cultural Arts Center, Douglasville, GA
Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA