{"id":792435,"date":"2026-07-10T08:42:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T08:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/792435\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T08:42:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T08:42:21","slug":"where-folded-canvas-carries-memory-susan-maddux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/792435\/","title":{"rendered":"where folded canvas carries memory: susan maddux"},"content":{"rendered":"

painted canvases form colorful artworks by susan maddux<\/p>\n

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A Susan Maddux painting begins as a surface and ends as something far more difficult to name. Folded, pleated, gathered, and coaxed into relief, her canvases hover somewhere between painting, sculpture<\/a>, textile<\/a>, and garment. They catch light like fabric, cast shadows like architecture<\/a>, and carry the memory of every hand that has ever folded cloth.<\/p>\n

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The Los Angeles-based artist has spent years developing a practice that gently unsettles the boundaries between disciplines. Working with painted canvas, Maddux builds compositions that refuse to remain flat, allowing each fold to reshape the image itself. What emerges is less a painting than an object with presence, one that asks to be read through texture, movement, and touch as much as color.<\/p>\n

\"where
all images courtesy of Susan Maddux<\/a><\/p>\n

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maddux transforms folded canvas into sculptural landscapes<\/p>\n

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Nothing in Maddux\u2019s work feels rushed. Every canvas by the artist<\/a> passes through an extended process of folding, unfolding, painting, staining, and reshaping until the material begins to determine its own direction. The composition is discovered through touch as much as intention. Each crease changes the way light settles across the surface. Each adjustment introduces a new rhythm.<\/p>\n

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The finished works retain that sense of becoming. They never disguise the gestures that formed them. Instead, the folds remain visible, recording the slow accumulation of decisions that transformed a flat canvas into a sculptural relief. Looking at them feels almost archaeological, as though each layer preserves a trace of the one before it.<\/p>\n

\"where
\u2018Flourish\u2019 (2026), acrylic paint, canvas, jute, batting, and archival adhesive, 67 x 38 x 4 inches<\/p>\n

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textile traditions shape a contemporary artistic practice<\/p>\n

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There is something deeply familiar about the gestures that define Maddux\u2019s work. Folding cloth, smoothing fabric, turning a garment over in your hands. These are quiet movements that belong as much to everyday life as they do to the artist\u2019s studio.<\/p>\n

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Maddux elevates those actions into a sculptural vocabulary informed by her background in textile design, her Japanese heritage, and her upbringing in Hawaii. The language of fabric becomes the language of painting. Domestic gestures become compositional tools. Cultural memory settles into every fold without ever becoming literal.<\/p>\n

Many of her works evoke garments, ceremonial robes, or draped forms without directly depicting them. The references remain subtle, allowing viewers to recognize something familiar before they can fully identify it. Painting begins to behave like cloth, while cloth begins to suggest architecture.<\/p>\n

\"where
inside the artist\u2019s studio<\/p>\n

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craft becomes a conversation between hand and material<\/p>\n

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The strength of Maddux\u2019s practice lies in its sensitivity to material. Canvas is never treated as a passive support waiting to receive an image. It pushes back. It resists. It remembers every fold. That dialogue between artist and material transforms making into a process of listening. The work develops through repeated acts of observation and adjustment, allowing form to emerge gradually instead of being imposed from the beginning. The intelligence of the hand remains visible throughout.<\/p>\n

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This approach expands the meaning of craftsmanship beyond technical mastery alone. Craft becomes a relationship built through patience, repetition, and sustained attention. Innovation arrives quietly, growing from gestures that have been repeated across generations.<\/p>\n

\"where
\u2018Vesper\u2019 (2025), acrylic paint, canvas, and archival adhesive, 66 x 29 x 6 inches<\/p>\n

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LA ARTIST reimagines painting through embodied knowledge<\/p>\n

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While contemporary conversations about the future often focus on technological advancement, Maddux\u2019s work offers another way of thinking about progress. Her practice suggests that new artistic languages can emerge by returning to techniques that have long existed, carrying them into unfamiliar territory through experimentation.<\/p>\n

Painting no longer functions simply as an image on a wall. It becomes physical, architectural, and deeply tactile. Sculpture softens into textile. Textile expands into abstraction. The boundaries separating each discipline gradually dissolve.<\/p>\n

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Through folded canvases that hold both memory and movement, Susan Maddux reminds us that craft is never static. It evolves every time a familiar gesture is performed differently. Every fold carries the knowledge of the past while opening space for something entirely new. The future, in her hands, is not manufactured. It is carefully folded into being.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"painted canvases form colorful artworks by susan maddux \u00a0 A Susan Maddux painting begins as a surface and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,259529,356,75,9418,87495],"class_list":["post-792435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-crafting-the-future","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-sculpture","tag-textile-and-fabric-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}