Maggie Brink’s paintings —layered and ghost-like representations of inanimate objects, landscapes and figures— are exhibited alongside sculptural works and textiles that are dyed, printed and sewn in different ways, sometimes with graphic imagery or text overlaid.
Transforming her references— tv shows, cinema and theatre, slogans, generic branding, (pseudo/) science, popular culture, history and mythology and a growing archive of her photographs and found images —through these constructed environments, Maggie creates and explores subtle and awkward exchanges — trading in subjective associative responses to produce open-ended and multiple meanings through her work.
An ongoing interest in Maggie’s practice is the way that exchange—with oneself, between oneself and other/s, with the world—and the reading and negotiation of images, texts, environments, other bodies — necessitates awareness and negotiation of boundaries: psychic, spiritual, physical, porous.
In 2021, Maggie relocated from Melbourne to Kaurna land, Myponga, South Australia, with her partner and daughter, where she built and set up a new studio in her backyard. Since then, she has been working on a series of paintings and textiles in preparation for her third solo exhibition with ReadingRoom, EURO FANTASY SHOWER CURTAIN. Benedict Brink has contributed a text and photo essay that accompanies the exhibition.
Maggie Brink (b. 1983, Brisbane, Australia) currently lives and works in Kaurna land, South Australia. She received her MFA(2020) from Sydney College of the Arts, where she also completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) in 2014. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Australia and New Zealand, and solo exhibitions include Metal Rat Mystery Horse, ReadingRoom, Melbourne (2021), Alien Alien Crocodile Shadow, ReadingRoom, Melbourne (2018), Pale Blue Dot Dot Dot, Firstdraft, Sydney (2017), County Athletics, Knulp, Sydney (2017). Maggie will attend the DESA Artist-In-Residence program, hosted in Bali, Indonesia, in mid-2024.