Destin contemporary artist Natalie Maxted will represent the Emerald Coast in Summer City Idyll, a group exhibition opening July 23 at Agora Gallery in New York City’s Chelsea arts district.
Maxted’s painting Eating (2020) was selected through an international open call organized by Circle Foundation for the Arts. The recognition marks an important step in the artist’s return to her creative practice following a period of profound personal change.
Maxted came to the Emerald Coast through her family’s military service and later made Destin her home. After she was widowed in 2022, she stepped away from her art practice to focus on raising the couple’s young daughter. In recent years, she has been steadily rebuilding her career.
Although Maxted’s work has previously been exhibited in New York, Madrid, Monaco, London and Miami, she continues to live and work in Destin.
“I am proud to represent our local arts community on an international stage,” Maxted said.
Eating is part of Maxted’s Mood Series, a body of work exploring the psychology of being seen and the ways feminine identity is constructed. Her current practice considers how digital alteration and synthetic imagery increasingly shape perceptions of identity.
Working through portraiture and the female gaze, Maxted uses painting to examine the tension between the polished surface of the female image and the more complicated psychological realities it may conceal.
Before becoming a full-time artist, Maxted worked at Christie’s in London. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of St Andrews and a master’s degree through the University of Warwick and IESA in Paris and London.
More information about Maxted and her work is available at nataliemaxted.com.
