Maude Tanswai is a visual artist and writer with a particular interest in exploring the nature and elements of being. Her focus is on miniature, intricately detailed drawings and paintings. Utilizing technical pens, ink, gouache, loupes and Leroy Keuffel & Esser drafting tools, she combines freehand images of biomorphic structures, events and processes with source texts and found poetry.
Tanswai received her BA from the University of California, Berkeley with a major in English and minor in City & Regional Planning. Born and raised in suburban Detroit, she now lives and works in Ojai, CA.
EXHIBITIONS
• EVERY WOMAN BIENNIAL, Superchief Gallery NFT, New York, NY, Jun 2021
• ROOTS, NARA Studio, Los Angeles, CA, Mar 2019
• MAR VISTA ART WALK, Mar Vista, CA, Mar 2019
• EARTH WARRIOR, Tree of Life Gallery, Topanga, CA, Apr 2018
• SMALL WORKS 2016, Main Street Arts, Clifton Springs, NY, Dec 2016
• SUNNY, Fouladi Projects, San Francisco, CA, Jun-Aug 2016
• VENICE ARTBLOCK, Letelier Studio, Venice, CA, May 2016
• DROP LEAF PRESS Featured Artist, San Francisco, CA, 2015-2016
PUBLICATIONS
• we could hang a radical panel of light by Sarah Rosenthal, Drop Leaf Press {Cover Art}, Mar 2022
• The Proscenium by Vi Khi Nao, Ugly Duckling Presse {Cover Art}, Dec 2019
• MOON: Letters, Maps, Poems by Jennifer S. Cheng, Tarpaulin Sky Press {Cover Art}, May 2018
• Spiritus Nara :: Collaboration with NARA Collective, May 2018
• OXALIS Volume 1: Hinge, Spring 2015
INTERVIEWS
• A Dialogue Between the Visual and the Poetic :: Alta Mesa Center for the Arts, Oct 2023
• On Autobiological Impulses :: Poems + Interview w/Vi Khi Nao, Tupelo Quarterly TQ17, Mar 2019
• Organic Form + Ink :: Interview w/Sabrina Y. Smith, Art Gypsy Tales, Jan 2016
• CREATIVE :: Interview w/Tiger Feng, Jun 2016