Antheia, acrylic on wood

Vancouver-based artist Megan Majewski’s practice is informed by a love for all things cute and creepy, as well as the artist’s background in computer animation. Majewski’s artworks often feature cartoonish, goth-girl figures and spooky motifs such as skulls and spider webs.

The exaggerated style that Majewski uses to render her figures showcases a dramatic, artistic flair with a basis of solid anatomical understanding. In most cases, an image focuses on one or two central figures, surrounded by vaguely symbolic imagery such as animals, Victorian-style furnishings, or trees. I like the way Majewski is able to adapt her style to different eras and themes – in some paintings, she takes on “retro” styling, creating images of robotic women in 1950’s-style service uniforms. In “post-apocalyptic” works, gas-masks and mutated animals appear frequently.

Untitled, oil on wood

In more recent works, Majewski utilizes a blotchy, almost watercolor-esque style to render subjects in a fluid and slightly more ambiguous fashion. I find this method particularly effective for portraiture, where the viewer gets to focus on the facial features and the rest of the figure fades into colored mist. 

The sun no longer reaches me, acrylic on wood panel