For Want of Abundance

Through kitsch, color and extravagance, artists Megan Ellen MacDonald, Giuseppe Beddru, and Claudia Jowitt challenge contemporary aesthetics through their poignant artworks. Upending traditional narratives has consistently aided artists in paving new ways to visually communicate with society. These three maximalist artists form a collective of loud, vibrant, and avant-garde.

Megan Ellen MacDonald's recent series of oil paintings challenge existing aesthetic hierarchies in painting by creating a visual language out of things considered both diminutive and feminine. The still-life arrangements in these vibrant works depict intimate and destructive relationships between objects as an exploration of what it means to embrace femininity as agency.

Reminiscent of the Fauvist movement and Italian classicism, Italian artist Giuseppe Beddru’s bold outlines, dynamic brushstrokes and contrasting use of color make his work visually exciting. The artist represents those who are rejected because of prejudice or ignorance. Popular imagery within the context of Gree history is overturned by atypical, yet vibrant and beautiful characters that populate his artistic world and speak up loud to make their voice heard.

Claudia Jowitt creates eccentric textured paintings that are manipulated with a variety of cake-icing sets, spatulas, and other kitchen implements. Jowitt's process upends traditional concepts of femininity as she challenges the history of craft versus serious art and their respective gendered narratives through kitchen tools.