Architecture News

Susan Maddux's innovative artistic creations emerge from a thoughtful engagement with canvas, transcending conventional artistic boundaries to offer a fresh perspective on the interplay of painting, sculpture, and textile art. Her method, rooted in a painstaking process of manipulation and transformation, invites viewers to reconsider the nature of art itself.

Artist Susan Maddux Redefines Canvas Artistry

In her Los Angeles studio, artist Susan Maddux embarks on a unique artistic journey, beginning with a simple canvas and culminating in profound, multi-dimensional artworks. Her creative process involves meticulously folding, pleating, and gathering the material, coaxing it into dynamic relief forms that challenge traditional classifications. These pieces skillfully navigate the space between painting, sculpture, and textile, capturing light in ways reminiscent of draped fabric, casting shadows like architectural elements, and carrying an intrinsic memory of human touch.

Maddux's long-standing practice is characterized by a deliberate blurring of disciplinary lines. By working with painted canvas, she constructs compositions that resist flatness, allowing each fold and crease to fundamentally alter the visual narrative. The resulting artworks are not merely painted images but rather objects imbued with tangible presence, compelling observers to engage with their textures, movements, and tactile qualities as much as their chromatic richness. Works such as 'Flourish' (2026), a striking piece measuring 67 x 38 x 4 inches, exemplify her mastery, incorporating acrylic paint, canvas, jute, batting, and archival adhesive to create a vibrant, layered experience.

The creation of each Maddux canvas is an unhurried, iterative process. The artist repeatedly folds, unfolds, paints, stains, and reshapes the material until the canvas itself begins to dictate its own evolving form. This discovery-driven approach prioritizes touch and responsiveness over rigid pre-conception. Every fold influences how light interacts with the surface, and each subtle adjustment introduces a new rhythmic quality to the composition. The finished pieces openly reveal their formative gestures; the visible folds serve as a chronicle of the accumulated decisions that elevate a flat canvas into a sculptural relief. Viewing these works evokes an archaeological sensibility, as if each layer meticulously preserves the remnants of its predecessors, including 'Vesper' (2025), a 66 x 29 x 6 inch artwork combining acrylic paint, canvas, and archival adhesive.

Maddux's artistry is deeply informed by the familiar gestures of textile traditions—the folding of cloth, the smoothing of fabric, the careful handling of garments. These everyday actions are elevated into a sophisticated sculptural vocabulary, shaped by her background in textile design, her Japanese heritage, and her upbringing in Hawaii. The very language of fabric seamlessly integrates with the language of painting, transforming domestic actions into potent compositional tools. Her work subtly infuses cultural memory into every fold, without resorting to explicit representation. Many of her creations subtly reference garments, ceremonial robes, or draped forms, inviting viewers to connect with a sense of familiarity before fully grasping their abstract nature. Through her hands, painting adopts the characteristics of cloth, and cloth in turn suggests architectural forms.

At the core of Maddux's practice is a profound sensitivity to materials. Canvas is never a mere passive support; it actively participates in a dialogue with the artist, pushing back, resisting, and retaining the memory of every fold. This ongoing conversation transforms the act of creation into a process of attentive listening. The work evolves through continuous observation and adjustment, allowing forms to emerge organically rather than being imposed from the outset. The inherent intelligence of the artist's hand remains distinctly evident throughout.

This approach expands the conventional understanding of craftsmanship beyond technical proficiency. For Maddux, craft signifies a relationship built on patience, repetition, and unwavering attention. Innovation arises subtly, growing from gestures that have been refined and reinterpreted across generations.

In an era often fixated on technological advancement, Maddux's work presents an alternative vision of progress. Her practice suggests that novel artistic languages can blossom by revisiting established techniques and propelling them into uncharted territories through diligent experimentation. Painting, in her hands, transcends its function as a mere image on a wall; it becomes a physical, architectural, and profoundly tactile experience. Sculpture gently merges with textile, and textile expands into abstraction, causing the boundaries separating these disciplines to gracefully dissolve.

Through her folded canvases, which encapsulate both memory and dynamic movement, Susan Maddux eloquently reminds us that craft is never static. It continuously evolves each time a familiar gesture is reimagined. Every fold embodies the wisdom of the past while simultaneously creating space for entirely new possibilities. In her capable hands, the future of art is not manufactured; it is meticulously folded into being, exemplified by works like 'Mantle' (2026), an acrylic paint and canvas piece held together with archival adhesive, measuring 26 x 42 x 5 inches.

Susan Maddux's work is a powerful testament to the enduring relevance of tactile engagement and the profound beauty that can emerge when an artist truly listens to their materials. Her unique approach invites viewers to slow down, observe closely, and experience art in a more physical and contemplative way. It's a reminder that true innovation often lies not in abandoning tradition, but in reimagining it with fresh eyes and skilled hands, proving that the most compelling artistic narratives can arise from a deep, intuitive dialogue between creator and medium. This fusion of art forms creates a truly immersive experience that resonates deeply with those who encounter it.

Experiencing Architecture Anew: The Villa as a Timepiece

Reactivating a Modernist Landmark

During Les Rencontres d'Arles, American artists Gerard & Kelly introduced 'On Time,' a unique site-specific project at Villa Benkemoun. This initiative aims to breathe new life into Émile Sala's 1970s organic residence, temporarily restoring it to a state of daily occupation. This latest work continues the Paris-based artists' ongoing investigation into modernist architecture, building on previous installations at esteemed locations like Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye and Eileen Gray's E-1027. However, 'On Time' shifts its focus from merely admiring architectural icons to immersing itself in lived experience, contemplating how a house, now functioning as a museum, can once again embody the essence of a home.

The Villa as a Dynamic Clockwork

Central to Gerard & Kelly's 'On Time' is their performance, 'Clockwork,' which features two performers who reside within the villa overnight and enliven it throughout the day. At predetermined intervals, they navigate the various rooms, vocalizing fragments of memories, dancing, and executing choreographed sequences that respond to the building's inherent spatial logic. Over a span of four days, the house itself evolves into a living clock, with the performers' bodies and voices acting as its kinetic hands, marking the passage of time through their presence and movement.

From Museum to Lived Reality

Curator Raphaël Giannesini explains that the project's genesis stemmed directly from Villa Benkemoun's evolving status. Invited by Brigitte Benkemoun, whose family originally commissioned the house, Giannesini has been developing an artistic program that redefines the villa as a space capable of fostering innovative forms of inhabitation. Following an initial exhibition that celebrated the villa's history through archival materials, he sought a fundamentally different approach. Giannesini articulated, 'This house has transformed into a museum, but how can we reclaim its original purpose? Ultimately, it is a place designed for living.'

Embracing the Rhythms of Inhabitation

Gerard & Kelly consciously chose to remove many of the existing objects from the villa's interior, thereby allowing the architectural purity of the structure to come to the fore. The spaces are then animated through movement, expressive gestures, and the routines of daily life. The performers assume the role of temporary inhabitants, whose personal narratives intertwine with the historical echoes embedded within the house itself, blurring the lines between immediate experience and past recollections. This methodology aligns with the artists' broader artistic endeavors, which frequently explore the intricate interplay between choreographic expression and modern architectural forms. While their previous works have been presented in canonical houses associated with figures such as Le Corbusier or Mies van der Rohe, Villa Benkemoun offers a distinct challenge. Designed by French architect Émile Sala in the early 1970s, the residence bears the accumulated imprints of family life alongside its architectural aspirations, presenting what Giannesini describes as 'a lived modernism,' a concept integral to the 'On Time' installation.

Architecture's Temporal Narrative

The very design of the building profoundly influences the performance. Sala's vision for the villa incorporated flowing curves that seamlessly connect interior spaces with the surrounding landscape. The structure's distinctive tower introduces a vertical axis, drawing attention to the continuous flow of time. Giannesini posits that the house is 'more a subject of time than of space,' observing that the performers effectively become the hands of a clock as they circulate throughout the architectural space. Their movements are not externally imposed but emerge in direct response to the villa's geometry, inherent rhythms, and circulatory paths. As the curator poetically describes, 'the villa itself is a dancing villa,' an active participant in the unfolding narrative.

Interventions and Everyday Rhythms

In conjunction with the live performances, Gerard & Kelly have integrated several artistic elements that reinforce the project's focus on temporal themes. These include contrasting digital clocks, a score drawing, and 'Défense de rire' (2025), a wall lamp designed to illuminate at each passing hour. Dispersed throughout the villa, these interventions become integral components of the immersive experience. Over three days, the villa is re-inhabited as performers sleep within its walls at night and return to its spaces throughout the day. Their actions trace familiar routes and everyday gestures, imbuing the house with a distinct rhythm during the vibrant opening week of Les Rencontres d'Arles.