Through painting, sculpture, and installation, Mayo’s work straddles the line between abstraction and figuration, challenging moralistic biases in a playful way. She strives to imbue a vision of mythic fantasy with contradiction and imperfection. As the objects in the Vex-Visceral sculpture series have been designed to evoke weapons, sex-toys, selfcare accoutrements, and athletic equipment, there is a powerful feminist emphasis on fighting for, or cultivating one’s unconventional desires and courageous spirit. Mayo considers the erotic as a key element that animates the work and connects the objects together, while stimulating ideas about materiality, the body and play. There is an intriguing overlap between conflict resolution and the erotic in that they are both enhanced via self-assertiveness, self-awareness, and affirmation of one's physical world.
Madeleine Mayo holds an MFA from Concordia University (2018) and a BFA from OCADU (2009). She was awarded the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in 2019 and has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants.
