Maddie Aunger

Maddie Aunger, St. Louis, Missouri

There is both care and respect in silence and in order. In my work moments of quiet, stillness, and clarity mirror my experience of the domestic spaces in my life and how I encounter them. My work evokes the feelings of comfort I find in the small elements of delight sprinkled throughout an average day.

My work begins as an excitement about a specific formal quality, a shape of light, a hint of color, repetition of form, or a composition of layered spaces. The paintings are quiet, crisp, orderly, and controlled representations of places around my home executed at an intimate scale in acrylic on panel.

I aim to capture instances that pull me out of the day and bring me into the moment. Light that only briefly touches a specific spot, shadows that stretch and disappear within minutes, spaces seen through barriers, and colors reflecting from unknown sources highlight and bring my attention to the spaces that might normally fade into the background or go unnoticed. Each painting explores a distinct moment I’ve experienced while moving through a typical day; I do not change my routines or go searching for compositions. My work encourages the viewer to slow down and take notice of their presence in spaces.

Maddie Aunger is a painter from St. Louis, Missouri. She received her MFA in Painting from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in May of 2022. Aunger completed her undergraduate studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville where she earned a BFA in Drawing, a B.S in Art Education, and a minor in Art History. Maddie works in acrylic paint on panel, re-presenting domestic spaces, focusing on the visual experience of the place. Saturated colors and sharp shadows move away from reality but replicate the feeling of having fresh eyes and the surprises that each new moment can hold. Aunger’s paintings document a specific place and time and provide snapshots into a period of her life.