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1940’s pin-up girls and paper dolls are central icons in Jane Maxwell’s riveting collage, which examines women, body image and the feminine ideal. Her work, rich with layer and texture, deftly deconstructs each sensual silhouette, replacing rosy cheeks and sexy skivvies with imagery from vintage fruit and vegetable crate labels – extolling the virtues of produce. This food imagery, ripe with color and text, both surrounds and becomes the figure – calling into question a culture where women are dominated by food issues, and toys with the age-old notion of women being objectified as fruit. ‘Nice melons, peach!’

Jane’s work offers a juxtaposition of women in conversation, comparison or repetition, underscoring the role that female camaraderie and competition play in the ideal body quest; and making a statement about our culture’s insistence on uniformity. Each canvas is worked on for many, many hours – layering, sanding, building-up, peeling back and utilizing a special method of overlaying imagery with melted beeswax. She reveals and obscures to pull the viewer into a meaningful encounter with the work.

Selected exhibitions:

• 2010 San Francisco Art Fair, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, CA.
  Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
• 2009 Campton Gallery, New York, NY.
  Mauger Modern Art, Bath, UK.
  Art London, UK.
  Red Dot Miami, Miami, FL.
  Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
  LA Art Fair, Los Angeles, CA.
  Go Figure, Lanoue Fine Art, Boston, MA.
  Included in 30th anniversary edition of Who’s Who in American Art.
• 2008 Campton Gallery, New York, NY.
  Hubert Gallery, New York, NY.
  Galerie Geraldine Zberro, Paris, France.
• 2007 Heidi Cho Gallery, New York, NY.
  Susan Maasch Fine Art, Portland, ME.
  S, M, L, XL, New England Art Institute Gallery, Brookline, MA.
• 2006 Made in America, Judi Rotenberg Gallery, Boston, MA.
  Oylan Gallery, Cambridge, MA.
  Carney Gallery at Regis College, Weston, MA.
  Serious Fun: Whimsical Art by Fine Artists, Nave Gallery, Somerville, MA.
  One Way Gallery, Featured Artist, Narragansett, RI.
  Her Mark, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL.
  Small Works National Juried Art Exhibition, Attleboro Arts Museum, Juror’s Choice Award, Attleboro, MA.
  Fiber and the Book Artist, Fiber Art Center, Amherst, MA.
  Blue, Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA.
• 2005 Director’s Choice, Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA.
  Communicating Through Collage, Cushing-Martin Gallery, Stonehill College, Easton, MA.
• 2004 Mario Russo Salon, Louis Boston, Boston, MA.
  Icons and Alters, New Art Center, Newton, MA.
  Women Spring into Life, BAAK Gallery, Cambridge, MA.
• 2003 Inner Selections, DK Project Art, Boston, MA.
  Icons and Alters, New Art Center, Newton, MA
• 2002 Holzwasser Gallery, New Art Center, Newton, MA.
  Persona, The Somerville Museum, Somerville, MA.
  Hot Colors, Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA.
  Icons and Alters, New Art Center, Newton, MA.
• 2001 Face to Face, The Stage Gallery, Merrick, NY.
  Red, Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA.
• 2000 Rhymes & Rhythms, ArtWorks!, New Bedford, MA.
  International Show, Period Art Gallery, Omaha, NE.
  Annual Juried Show, Newburyport Art Association.
  Mixed Media Prize, Newburyport, MA.

Featured publications:

• Mixed Media Collage, Quarry Books, Published: Fall 2008.
• Potentia, Random House, Published: Fall 2008 www.potentiamedia.com
• Complete Color Harmony Workbook, Rockport Books, Published: May 2007.
• Artful Paper Dolls, By Terry Taylor, Lark Books, Published: June 2006.
• Beyond Paper Dolls, By Lynne Perella Stampington & Company, Published: September 2006.
• Collage Sourcebook, By Jennifer Atkinson, Holly Harrison and Paula Grasdal, Quarry Books Published:2005.
• Collage for the Soul, By Holly Harrison and Paula Gradsal, Rockport Books, Published: 2003.
• Altered Books, Collaborative Journals, and Other Adventures in Bookmaking, By Holly Harrison, Rockport Books, Published: 2003.
• Features, Artella Magazine, Issue #10 (2007).
• The Boston Sunday Globe, Paper Dolls That Deliver a Message (February 11, 2007).
• Newton Magazine, Icons and Altars (December 2006).
• Newton Magazine, Arts Outlook (April 2006).
• The Boston Globe, Sidekick Cover (January 17, 2006).
• The Boston Globe, Campus Calendar (January 19, 2006).
• The Metrowest Daily News, All Doll-ed Up (January 19, 2006).
• The Wayland/Weston Town Crier, Exploring Body Image With Paper Doll Cut-Outs (January 19, 2006).
• Middlesex Beat, Fragmented Paper Dolls Reflect Women's Unease (February 2006).
• The Boston Sunday Globe, People (May 9, 2004).
• The Boston Sunday Globe Magazine, Working Order (August 24, 2003).
• The Boston Sunday Globe, Putting it all Together (May 11, 2003).
• The Newton Tab, Windows into the Souls of Artists (May 14, 2003).
• Art New England, Persona, Somerville Museum Show Review (August/September, 2002).