Maevaughn Chiu

About

London based abstract painter exploring colour, form and memory, transforming personal experiences into intuitive paintings of sensation, place and connection.

Statement

Maevaughn Chiu’s work explores the relationship between colour and form and the psychological responses they evoke. Rooted in indistinct memories of early childhood, often using sun-bleached hues that recall the heat and faded tones of early-1970s photography. These colours occupy emotional spaces, carrying sensations rather than narratives. Her visual language has developed from a desire to communicate a sense of place from her past through memories understood as felt experiences. Central to the work is an awareness of the interconnectedness of history, environment, relationships and the flow of energy through all things. Her compositions emerge from remembered connections to artists, design movements and places. Shapes draw on diverse visual sources, from the modernist art of her childhood to forms encountered while living in Africa, Asia, Canada and Yorkshire. The ellipse has fascinated her since studying interior design as a teenager. It suggests an otherworldlyness - the orbit of planets or a portal into another dimension. Line drawing has always been important to her practice, and her painted linear works are a natural progression. Painted freehand in layers, they are intuitive and performative, with each line responding to the previous one. Through line, shape, colour and scale, she explores feeling, sensation, existence, evolution and relationship, creating a tactile, handwoven textile-like quality.

Education

• 2008MA Fine Art - one year completed, City & Guilds of London Art School, London
• 1989BA(hons) Theatre Design, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham
• 1984Diploma Interior Design, Batley Art College, Batley, West Yorkshire

Exhibitions

Recognition

Commissions

I take commissions for large scale and/or site specific paintings.