Somaflora: Recent work by Maggie Nowinski

Maggie Nowinski’s drawings combine the sensibilities of scientific illustrations with continuous contour doodling and, most recently, stark black silhouettes to create and examine complex systems: somatic, psychological, and social. Working with layers of intricate pen and ink linework, she gives form to imagined specimens, which often appear as plant-animal hybrids, of which Nowinski says, “As they emerge I am aware that the lived experience in my body is vast and enigmatic and I think about the interplay of resilience and ache in these specimens – triumphant adaptations and self-sufficient, sometimes toxic, systems.”

Maggie Nowinski is an interdisciplinary visual artist, arts educator, and curator who lives and works in Western Massachusetts.

While her process is rooted in drawing, her artworks frequently take the format of installation and combine traditional and unusual media, audio, video and performative processes. Nowinski is adjunct faculty at Westfield State University (MA) and Manchester Community College (CT) and is Artist-Mentor with Vermont College of Fine Arts in the MFA/Visual Arts Program.