"Signal Loss. Acrylic on canvas. 16 × 20 inches. 2026." Painting

Natalie Maxted is an American-British-Finnish contemporary fine artist working in acrylic on canvas. Born in Bogotá, Colombia, she lives and works in the United States. Her large-scale figurative portraits have been exhibited internationally, with works held in private collections across the US, UK, and Europe. Working exclusively by hand, Maxted’s paintings examine what happens to the human image after its endless reproduction through screens, photography, and digital culture. Her work exists at the intersection of pop art, portraiture, and contemporary image theory — translating the visual language of modern media back into singular painted form. Her subjects are overwhelmingly women, not as passive objects of observation, but as psychological and self-possessed presences. The gaze in her work does not perform for the viewer. It appraises. In an era where images are infinite and disposable, Maxted’s paintings insist on the authority of the painted surface: slow, physical, deliberate, and unable to be scrolled past. Gesture, distortion, cropping, and graphic flatness become tools for examining femininity, performance, beauty, and perception in contemporary life. After studying Art History and Classical Studies at the University of St Andrews and the University of Warwick/IESA in Paris and London, Maxted worked at Christie’s London before committing fully to studio practice. Her work has been exhibited at Artexpo New York, Red Dot Miami, Monaco Art Fair, and Monat Gallery Madrid. She accepts a limited number of private commissions annually.