Maddison Maloney is an emerging Australian visual artist who specialises in pen, marker, pencil, acrylic and watercolour paint.
Maddison Maloney is an emerging artist self-taught in storytelling, character design, and figure drawings. She has displayed several artworks in St Mary’s College and Ipswich galleries and is currently studying a Bachelor of Creative Arts and Community Wellbeing at UniSQ. She looks to develop her career in art and wellbeing.
Artist Statement:
My work explores a form of stylised realism through the reimagining of character narratives and emotional intensity of pop culture. Much of my work can be considered “fanfiction” as I take great inspiration from shows, comics, games, and pop culture. Often creating visual stories that merge fictional and real-world themes. Several figures I depict in my works are self-created characters with fully developed personalities and backstories part of a larger, interconnected universe influenced by real world media I consume. This world in of itself is shaped by plots pertaining to themes of escapism, identity, and chosen family. My artworks are layered with references from media fandoms, internet culture, and games, often splicing together imagery to create something new and often personal.
I challenge the idea of singular authorship, inviting viewers to recognise familiar pictures in an unfamiliar way. These characters are more than just icons to me, they are vessels for my complex emotions, adoration and love for these works, and as a creative outlet. Drawings, paintings, and prints allow me to conjure these stories in a satisfying way. Ultimately, my practice is about storytelling; self-exploration, dealing with real-life in unexpected ways, and finding comfort and connection within fiction and fandoms.
Recent Artworks
My artwork ‘Inside and Out’ uses a combination of ceramic slab building and sculptural techiques that I have learnt over the course of this semester. This work explores the concepts of identity and self-expression from my past and current experiences. My aim was portraying my journey as an artist and also as a person from my younger years, to now, and the future. I chose the imagery of a tree bursting from a head as I felt that this metaphorically portrayed my own mind on a day-to-day basis. I have always taken great inspiration from TV shows, movies, and games to create artworks and stories, using the form of branches reaching in many directions to show this. My growth as a person has directly influenced my art practice, I have branched out into new mediums and themes I haven’t explored before. In my art practice my goal is to show love and appreciation for the things that inspire me to do art, and to create narratives that are personal to me.
