CONTEMPORARY

ARTIST
MAISIE COUSINS
Loren LeSure and Heather Thornton
ARTE 344/544

Portrait of Maisie Cousins 2021. © Tim Smyth

BIOGRAPHY
Maisie Cousins was born on May 13, 1992 in London. Cousins
refuses to be shaped by others and she likes to do things her own way. It
runs in the family especially with her mother, who went from being a
successful graphic designer to becoming a midwife, and she is her role
model when it comes to following her inner voice. As a child she loved
playing in the bath and sink with water. As she grew into a young woman
and was attending art school, she loved experimenting with textures,
colors, and soaking the skin with water to create that sensuous shine for
photographs.
She considers herself a maximalist with her work. She only wants to
surround herself with things she likes and finds interesting. She rebelled
against most authority as she went through art school learning that only
certain artists, art forms and mediums that were the latest trends were
appreciated, which she felt limited her creative expression. Hence she
uses her macro photography to expose the real up close and personal
stories behind what is considered sometimes repulsive and attractive, or
rotten and sweet. It’s the dichotomy of the shock value that draws one to
her work.

Cousins, M. (2015). Here I Am on Holiday. Instagram.

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https://www.instagram.com/maisiecousins/
BIOGRAPHY
In most of her artwork she explores the idea of what is going on
inside the body and also with objects, nature, and small bugs and slugs.
Some of her work is known to be both repulsive and disgusting visually.
She creates artwork with macro photography and closeups of both the
body and objects that are either decomposed or just in their natural state.
The less manipulation she has to do to get a photo, the better. Taking a
photo of fresh trash is even pretty to her since it’s untouched. She sees the
beauty in an uncontrolled still life where color, texture, and light come alive.
She studied Fine Art Photography at Brighton University, completing
her BA in 2014. She has been an active artist since 2013. Currently, she is
represented by TJ Boulting Art Gallery, London and Galería Hilario
Galguera, Mexico City. She lives and works in Hastings, UK. She has a
partner and a daughter.

Zeit Magazine, 2022.

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ART EXHIBITS
❖ 2016 Vogue Photo Festival in Milan Fotofo festival, Slovakia
❖ 2017 first solo show ‘grass, peonie, bum’ was held in May at TJ Boulting, London.
❖ 2017 her work was published as part of a survey of female photographers ‘Girl on Girl’
edited by Char- lotte Jansen (Lawrence King).
❖ 2018 she had the inaugural solo show at Elephant West, London
❖ 2018 she completed a month-long residency in Colombia with FIBRA foundation
❖ 2018, the European Month of Photography Luxembourg, Musée National d’Histoire et
d’Art Luxembourg
❖ 2019, the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, Hong Kong
❖ 2019, the Look Photo Biennial
❖ 2019 she was one of FOAM Amsterdam’s FOAM Talents with a travelling exhibition to
London and New York
❖ 2020 she had her first international solo show at Fotografiska, Stockholm, which will
travel to Estonia and New York
❖ 2020-21 the Bangkok Art Biennial
❖ 2021 first solo show in Mexico at Galería Hilario Galguera, Mexico City in November
❖ 2023 Walking Back to Happiness, TJ Boulting Art Gallery, United Kingdom

Portrait of Maisie Cousins 2021. © Courtesy of Galería Hilario Galguera.

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Holcomb, S. (2021, December 12). Maisie Cousins. ContentMode.
COLLAGES
Stickers, 2023
Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle Pearl
paper, face mounted to acrylic, printed on
facemount, frame

Whipped, 2023
Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle
Pearl paper, face mounted to acrylic,
printed on facemount, frame

Eggs, 2023
Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle
Pearl paper, face mounted to acrylic,
printed on facemount, frame
PAINTINGS

Backyard Marbling - Pink, 2020 Backyard Marbling - Blue, 2020

Giclée print on Hahnemühle German Etching paper Giclée print on Hahnemühle German Etching paper
16 1/2 × 11 7/10 in | 42 × 29.7 cm 16 1/2 × 11 7/10 in | 42 × 29.7 cm
TEXTILES Marc Jacobs Print Collaboration with Maisie Cousins, 2020.
 PHOTOGRAPHS
BY
MAISIE COUSINS

Bonnet Grass Bum

2015 Archival pigment print 2015 Archival pigment print
on Hahnemuhle Pearl paper on Hahnemuhle Pearl paper
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 PHOTOGRAPHS
BY
MAISIE COUSINS

Marshes Slug Berry

2018 Archival pigment print 2020 Archival pigment print
on Hahnemuhle Pearl paper on Hahnemuhle Pearl paper
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 FILMS
BY
MAISIE
COUSINS

Solar Film 4, 2019 10

 FILMS
BY
MAISIE
COUSINS

Film

Nowness, #satisfaction, 2019 11

PHOTO BOOK
RUBBISH, DIPPING SAUCE, GRASS
PEONIE BUM by Maisie Cousins
Introduction by Simon Baker, Director, MEP,
Paris.
Design by Jamie Shaw
Finalist Paris Photo Aperture Best First Book
Award 2019
22cm x 33cm
Maisie says: “I wanted to create a book from
Hardback monograph
the past five years, my favourites from
56 pages different projects and things in-between - like
ISBN 978-1-907112-60-7 a best of. There are a lot of reoccurring
themes and compositions.” Cousins, M.
(2019).
10 Magazine: Miu Miu Vogue: Russia 10 Magazine: Chanel Paper Magazine: Tove Lo

ADS MAISIE HAS DONE WITH BRANDS

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 ADS MAISIE HAS DONE WITH BRANDS CONT:

“One Girl’s Trash is “The Dazed Beauty

POP Magazine Ultimate Christmas
another Girl's Treasure” Gift Guide”

Coach Fenty Beauty

Vivienne Westwood
Dazed Beauty, Gift Guide
Polyester Magazine
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MOST RECENT WORK: GQ UK BOYGENIUS COVER

November 9, 2023

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MOST RECENT EXHIBITION: “WALKING BACK TO HAPPINESS”

TJ Boulting Art Gallery, United Kingdom

Dates: May 10 - June 17 2023
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About the exhibition: “Walking Back to Happiness”

❖ This new work sees her return to the confines of the domestic as she looks
after her young daughter at home in the seaside town of St. Leonards.
❖ Being isolated at home by the sea has also fueled her online obsession with
finding childhood objects that trigger the hit of nostalgic endorphins. She
incorporates them in her work as bold graphic layers, some printed on acrylic,
like a love letter to the 1970s childhood she never had.
❖ Surrounded by childhood objects and away from the constant movement of
London she had in her twenties, the images have nostalgia – fries, and
ketchup on the colored carpet, ice cream on a pink shag pile, bright and tacky
plastic toys, sweets, and buttons. All entwined with her return to the creatively
restricted environment of home.
Chippies, 2023
Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle Pearl paper

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AI Artwork

Said farewell to loneliness, 2023 I shouldn’t have gone away, 2023

Archival pigment print on Fujiflex, corners on mountboard, aluminium frame, AR70 glass Archival pigment print on Fujiflex, corners on mountboard, aluminium frame, AR70 glass

3 1/2 × 3 1/2 in | 9 × 9 cm 3 2/5 × 3 2/5 in | 8.7 × 8.7 cm

Her search for a lost childhood then delves deeper and more obsessively with a second series of works that harness AI. Family videos of Cousins

as a young girl with her granddad visiting her favorite theme park Blobbyland were destroyed by accident when she abandoned them in college.

With neither him nor videos of him now in existence, Cousins was prompted to use AI to try and retrieve memories of a precious time and place
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 REFERENCES
Thaddeus-Johns, J. (Ed.). (2023). Maisie Cousins - biography, shows, Articles & More
Artsy. https://www.artsy.net/. https://www.artsy.net/artist/maisie-cousins

Holcomb, S. (2021, December 12). Maisie Cousins. ContentMode.

https://www.contentmode.com/maisie-cousins/

Beauty, D. (2018, December 21). The dazed beauty ultimate christmas gift guide.
https://www.dazeddigital.com/beauty/article/42582/1/dazed-beauty-christmas-gift-guide

Cousins, M., & Allen, B. (2023, November 9). Boygenius will eat you alive. British GQ.
https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/boygenius-interview-2023

Beschizza, D. (2023). Maisie cousins walking back to happiness: TJ B O U L T I N G. TJ

Boulting. https://www.tjboulting.com/maisie-cousins-walking-back-to-happiness

Gamble, I. (2023, May 3). One girl’s trash is another girl’s treasure. Polyester.
https://www.polyesterzine.com/features/one-girls-trash-is-another-girls-treasure

Cousins, M. (2023). Pop Magazine, Maisie Cousins. Concrete Rep. LTD.

https://concreterep.com/artists/maisie-cousins/collections/pop-magazine/19

Cousins, M. (2019). Rubbish, Dipping Sauce, Grass Peonie Bum. Trolley Books.

Kraft, C. (2019, November 21). Maisie Cousins’s visceral images of desire and decay. The
New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/maisie-cousinss-visceral-
images-of-desire-and-decay

Maisie cousins. Fotografiska Stockholm. (2020).

Backyard Marbling - Pink, 2020
https://stockholm.fotografiska.com/en/exhibitions/maisie-cousins
Giclée print on Hahnemühle German Etching paper
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16 1/2 × 11 7/10 in | 42 × 29.7 cm