Miami, Florida-based artist Jillian Mayer works in a range of media, creating everything from static sculptures and installations to video art and online experiences. Mayer’s varied practice demands a studio where a variety of different activities and techniques coexist in a unique space. 

The artist’s studio looks wonderfully colourful and bright in this photograph. Mayer herself is hard at work on something -- it’s encouraging, somehow, to see the artist so intently focused on her activities. There’s a great sense of tactility and immediacy that comes with working on the floor like this, with art materials strewn about in a manner of organized chaos. The overall atmosphere here reminds me of our studio features of Jenny Saville or Misaki Kawai -- both artists who seem to utilize the studio floor as a staging and work space.  

The paintings around Mayer place an emphasis on approachable pastel shades and exude a sense of delight with the artistic medium.There’s so much going on in front of Mayer that it’s difficult to tell exactly what the artist is working on -- is she mixing paint? Working on a small-scale sketch? Looking for inspiration in different materials? 

Some of Mayer’s varied media show through even in this relatively narrow image. Behind the artist, a mannequin stands dressed in an apparently handmade garment. The painting to the mannequin’s right seems to present the arms of some hypothetical viewer, intently focused on a smartphone. The painting seems microcosmic of Mayer’s explorations of the relationship between humans and technology.

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