Stephanie & Alex Maxwell

"MIXED MEDIA PORTRAITS, 2020"

alluminum wire and collage

Stephanie and Alex Maxwell are married artists living and working in High Bridge, NJ. Both artists in their own right, Stephanie and Alex never thought to collaborate until the quarantine was almost over.

While in quarantine, Stephanie and Alex both continued to pursue their individual styles of work. Stephanie, who works primarily in drawing and wire sculpture, continued her penchant for whittling small to medium sized cubist-inspired portrait abstractions, motivated by sitting on long hours of conference calls from inside her tiny attic-turned-work-from-home office. Through quarantine Stephanie continued to create these momentos, and over the year accumulated many of these inspired ‘faces’ around the house, often gifting them to friends & colleagues through the mail - a medium of communication that in itself saw a resurgence during the pandemic.

Alex, who is currently pursuing his MFA degree in Graphic Design, turned to collage during the pandemic out of necessity for his virtual graduate assignments. Alex, seeing an opportunity between the two mediums (and the slow and steady pile of works accumulating in their home) prompted Stephanie to collaborate on a mixed-media project as a team, playing towards both their strengths. The result is these 5 pieces of surrealist “sculpture” that seem to come alive in parallel planes while also tricking the mind. The addition of spotlighting, and the subsequent shadowing effect of the wire, add a deeper layer of obscurity that lean into their cubist attitudes.

See more of Stephanie & Alex's work on instagram @goodtoyprintlab