Meg Aubrey

My work addresses the isolation, loneliness, and hominization of the suburban milieu; women navigating the structural confines of pre-planned communities within a modern consumer reality. The planned communities of suburbia have become my laboratory where I scrutinize daily activities and behaviors, asking questions about how this chosen lifestyle can rob people of their individualism under the facade of beauty, order, and security. The people in my paintings inhabit a desert-like dystopia of winding streets, identical mailboxes, and perfectly manicured lawns with unseen homes at the end of epic driveways. They dress in the acceptable uniform of suburbia and shield their identities behind darkened sunglasses. My work examines a society that has created an army of followers desperate to portray their lives as perfect while hiding the realities and complexities of modern daily existence.

Moving to Corpus Christi in 2016 presented a new social and cultural environment compared with the fast-paced Atlanta mega suburbs I lived in for twenty years. Being removed from the primary source that fueled my work gives me the space to position myself as an outsider rather than a participant as I continued to explore these themes. My frequent trips back to the suburbs are a continually rich source of inspiration.

Everyday objects—cell phones, mailboxes, garbage cans, shopping carts and chairs—are frequently presented within my paintings. Sometime these objects are presented as real and sometime substituted with the toy version. This disconnect between the real and the plastic toy address the "game" of life and the reality that we are all players within it, not in control of the outcome.

At heart I am a painter, in love with the viscous properties of the materials. Mixing and applying color to the surfaces of canvas and panel fuels my practice. The ability to visually communicate my ideas in this way is satisfying and rewarding. My desire to seduce the viewer with a deeply saturated, candy color palette allows me to imbue my sharp commentary in a visually attractive presentation; only with further scrutiny are the psychological undertones revealed.

Meg Aubrey earned her BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She has received the Artistic Honor Scholarship, the Hambidge Residency Award, the Encore Series Award for the best MFA thesis show and was a finalist for the Forward Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award. Her work has been shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia, Aqua Art/Art Miami, the University of Nevada, the Huntsville Museum of Art, the University of North Carolina and the Mississippi University for Women. Aubrey's work examines the suburban milieu and its effects on the those who inhabit it. Her subjects are pared down and scrutinized to reveal a disquieting psychological isolation present within these seemingly idyllic planned communities. Aubrey is an Associate Professor of Art at Texas A&M Corpus Christi.