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