{"id":91620,"date":"2025-03-27T04:15:04","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T11:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=91620"},"modified":"2025-03-31T19:34:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T02:34:14","slug":"curated-chaos-maya-englands-found-imagery-and-graphite-mastery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/curated-chaos-maya-englands-found-imagery-and-graphite-mastery\/","title":{"rendered":"Curated Narratives: Maya England\u2019s Found Imagery and Graphite Mastery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mixed<\/p>\n

“I have always been unable to resist the allure of yet another outdated magazine or satisfying trinket,” says Salt Lake City artist Maya England. This impulse to gather, paired with her dedicated drawing practice, results in works that feel like visual archives\u2014personal yet universal.<\/h4>\n

As an expansion of our 35×35<\/em> program, which highlights the work of young professional artists in the state, Artists of Utah will be hosting an exhibition by England at the upcoming Poor Yorick Open Studio event, March 29, 4-10 pm (Studio D6). The Utah Valley University (UVU) graduate, who received a Juror’s Award at 35×35<\/em>, has developed a distinctive artistic practice that merges her commitment to the fundamentals of drawing with a unique collage-inspired aesthetic.<\/h4>\n

Raised in what she describes as a “creative tension over the meanings of objects” (you might read here a reference to the 3-D collage inclinations of her artist father, Mark England<\/a>), England\u2019s fascination with found materials is a defining feature of her work. Old magazines, weathered photographs, and overlooked trinkets are collected and curated with care, forming the foundation for her layered visual style weaving memory, history and visual storytelling. Whether she\u2019s incorporating a 1950s hunting catalog or a train ticket from a childhood trip to London, each element speaks to a broader sense of memory and nostalgia, grounded in a contemporary visual language. Each composition seems to suggest a fragmented narrative, as if recalling memories or piecing together cultural detritus to create something deeply personal.<\/h4>\n

One recent piece prominently features a meticulously rendered payphone, its precise details emerging from a chaotic field of paint splatters and layered ephemera. Surrounding the payphone are vintage snapshots: a trio of men huddled around a motorcycle, a raccoon grasping a fishing pole, and a mixed-media image of a traffic signal. The result is a piece that invites viewers to linger, decoding connections between objects and images that might otherwise seem unrelated.<\/h4>\n

Another work centers on a large, graphite-drawn apple core\u2014a symbol of both consumption and loss. The surrounding textures and images, including fragmented silhouettes and figures floating across a pinkish sky, hint at cycles of decay and renewal. Similarly, a drawing of a ram\u2019s head emerges from a collage of architectural imagery, historical photographs, and anatomical studies\u2014melding themes of nature, culture, and memory.<\/h4>\n

In another piece, a fragmented skull is drawn in delicate detail and suspended amid collaged elements like vintage photographs, a View-Master reel, and drawings of flowers and houses. This interplay of precise draftsmanship and chaotic composition underscores a fascination with themes of mortality and remembrance.<\/h4>\n