Jane Maxwell On Sale

In her provocative collagist works, Boston, Massachusetts-born contemporary mixed media artist Jane Maxwell explores body image and harmful ideas about conventional beauty as perpetuated by the media. 

Maxwell spent a lot of time during her childhood in her grandfather’s South Boston garment factory. She admired the fashion designers and delighted in the doll-size versions of the clothing that the designers would make for her. She loved the different textures and patterns she discovered on the facility's bolts of fabric. There, Maxwell’s love of fashion, design and pop culture was born. 

Maxwell works with images mined from vintage fashion magazines and newspapers, constructing layered, multifaceted paintings that are bound with melted beeswax and finished with high-gloss resin. The sometimes complex imagery in her art, which features text and graphic elements from ads and billboard signage, isn’t a nod to haute couture fashion. It is instead a comment on the fashion industry's unrealistic body portrayals and Maxwell’s complicated relationship with her own self-image. 

“Into my adulthood, my love for fashion grew, but I went through a period of deeply resenting the fashion industry for teasing me with clothes that I could neither fit into nor afford,” Maxwell has written.

Maxwell’s use of negative space to create silhouettes is the artist’s way of telling us what she thinks is missing in the fashion industry — input from women. Maxwell sees challenges in women’s quests to find accurate representation within their clothing choices, and she highlights this theme by utilizing repurposed marketing materials to create iconic silhouettes that project confidence and power.

Maxwell earned a BA in literature from Middlebury College. She studied mixed media at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and at the deCordova Museum School in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Maxwell has been a guest college lecturer on the subject of body imagery, art and fashion, and was included in the 30th-anniversary edition of the noteworthy publication Who’s Who in American Art.

Maxwell’s first exhibit of note was in 2000 at Newburyport at the Newburyport Art Association’s Annual Juried Show where she won the Mixed Media Prize. Since then she has had dozens of exhibits across the United States as well as France and the United Kingdom.

On 1stDibs, find authentic Jane Maxwell paintings, mixed media works and other art. 

Used to refer to a time rather than an aesthetic, Contemporary art generally describes pieces created after 1970 or being made by living artists anywhere in the world. This immediacy means it encompasses art responding to the present moment through diverse subjects, media and themes. Contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, performance, digital art, video and more frequently includes work that is attempting to reshape current ideas about what art can be, from Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s use of candy to memorialize a lover he lost to AIDS-related complications to Jenny Holzer’s ongoing “Truisms,” a Conceptual series that sees provocative messages printed on billboards, T-shirts, benches and other public places that exist outside of formal exhibitions and the conventional “white cube” of galleries.

Contemporary art has been pushing the boundaries of creative expression for years. Its disruption of the traditional concepts of art are often aiming to engage viewers in complex questions about identity, society and culture. In the latter part of the 20th century, contemporary movements included Land art, in which artists like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer create large-scale, site-specific sculptures, installations and other works in soil and bodies of water; Sound art, with artists such as Christian Marclay and Susan Philipsz centering art on sonic experiences; and New Media art, in which mass media and digital culture inform the work of artists such as Nam June Paik and Rafaël Rozendaal.

The first decades of the 21st century have seen the growth of Contemporary African art, the revival of figurative painting, the emergence of street art and the rise of NFTs, unique digital artworks that are powered by blockchain technology.

Major Contemporary artists practicing now include Ai Weiwei, Cecily Brown, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Kara Walker.

Find a collection of Contemporary prints, photography, paintings, sculptures and other art on 1stDibs.

Mixed media is a type of art that sees artists using a range of materials or more than one medium. Find a range of mixed media paintings and other artworks for your space today on 1stDibs.

Mixed media is distinct from multimedia, which describes art involving electronic media, including video, computers and digital elements. Artists combine painting, drawing, photography and sculpture for mixed media art. Instead of sticking to one form, they aim to break boundaries and create unique pieces. Pop art is one of the vibrant periods for mixed media art, with Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg among its most fabled producers. Rauschenberg, like many mixed media artists, used found objects in his work, from cast-off furniture to newspapers.

Collage is one of the most well-known areas of mixed media. Artists use various types of paper, fabric, photographs and more to create one cohesive work. A type of collage is assemblage, which involves 3D objects.

While artists may use fabric in collage, it can be the very substance of the art itself. Fabric art makes extensive use of texture. Artists may paint or embroider on fabric to create layers of texture and color to evoke a specific feeling. They can also transfer photos onto fabric for innovative ways to display visuals.

Resin-based art has clean, sharp lines and a definitive shape. Resin is a liquid that hardens to a high-gloss surface and is used to seal wood, counters and floors. Resin can also seal artwork, and many artists tint it using pigment powder, ink, spray paint and other vivid materials. If water is added, the resin will turn milky instead of being completely transparent. It’s common for artists working in mixed media to use resin on nontraditional surfaces like glass, wood, metal and stone. This creates a shine that’s perfect to brighten a dull space in the home or office.

Find mixed media paintings and other art for sale on 1stDibs.