My paintings examine the concept of home as a condition shaped by agency, chance, and broader social systems.
Using abstracted architectural forms, shifting landscapes, and recurring motifs such as houses and moving boxes, I create images that exist between abstraction and representation. Geometry and color structure the work, while these forms function as metaphors for environments in flux—reflecting displacement, transition, and self-determination. Using traditional European oil painting devices such as perspective with Modernist color theory, Maynard constructs then disrupts this exactitude with brash gestural painting.
The work considers the psychological dimensions of home in relation to belonging, stability, and change. At its core, it reflects a capacity for reinvention, where changingenvironments mirror the resilience required to navigate them.
Nicole Maynard is a contemporary painter who blends architectural precision and painterly abstraction to explore how social systems, chance, and human agency define the concept of home. Maynard's unique style bridges the gap between strict geometric calculation and assertive brushwork by using traditional European perspective and Modernist color theory to construct landscapes that she then intentionally disrupts.
Originally from Boston, Massachusetts, Maynard earned an MFA in Painting with a minor in Printmaking from the University of Pennsylvania in 1996. Career highlights include exhibiting extensively in group and solo shows throughout the Northeast and Florida, featuring seven solo exhibitions at the Bowery Gallery in New York City, and completing a long-term artist residency at the Bakehouse Art Complex in Miami. She currently resides and works in New Jersey, positioned between the major art hubs of Philadelphia and New York City.
Bakehouse Art Complex, Miami, FL Artist-in-Residence, 2017–2023
Center for Emerging Visual Artists, Philadelphia, PA Affiliate Artist, 2026