Installation view of Madeline Peckenpaugh: Chosen Places (May 21-June 25, 2025) at Alexander Berggruen, New York, NY. Photo: Dario Lasagni
Madeline Peckenpaugh (b. 1991, Milwaukee, Wisconsin) renders depth through iterations of adding and subtracting paint, creating a semblance of deep and flat space simultaneously. Probing the slips in perception between corporeal experience, memory, and imagination, she shifts the scale of everyday elements, interlaces components, and depicts forms in both single tones and fluctuating textures. The viewer’s trained perception of the landscape can become questioned, as monumental structures begin to vaporize, and natural forms become paper thin. There is a reconciliation of opposites: deep space of the real world with the flat space of the canvas.
Peckenpaugh received an MFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI and a BFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA. Peckenpaugh’s work has been exhibited at Alexander Berggruen, New York, NY; Bremond Capela, Paris, FR; 1969 Gallery, New York, NY; F2T Gallery, Milan, IT; Andrew Reed Gallery, Miami, FL; PM/AM Gallery, London, UK; COMA, Sydney Australia; and The Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, RI; among others. Her work is included in the public collections of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; the Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA; Brown University, Providence, RI; and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA. Peckenpaugh lives and works in Queens, NY.
Madeline Peckenpaugh in the studio, 2025, Queens, NY. Photo: Philipp Hoffmann
MADELINE PECKENPAUGH: CHOSEN PLACES
May 21-June 25, 2025
MADELINE PECKENPAUGH: FARSIGHT
April 12-May 17, 2023
THE NATURAL WORLD: PART II
March 9-April 13, 2022
Scarecrow is the first show at Michael Werner since the Upper East Side gallery expanded to a second space, and for reasons of subway adjacency as well as narrative, it makes sense to begin at the newer location, on the fourth floor of 1018 Madison Avenue (worth a return trip to the building are Madeline Peckenpaugh’s cosmic, semi-abstracted landscapes one floor below, at Alexander Berggruen).
This year we celebrated the issue with a fireside chat between Art in America Editor-in-Chief Sarah Douglas and New York–based artist Madeline Peckenpaugh. Peckenpaugh was highlighted in Art in America’s 2023 ”New Talent” issue and offered insight on how her practice has developed one year later as well as what it is like to be an artist today, in an ever-changing market and art-world ecosystem.
Peckenpaugh, who describes her paintings as “abstract landscapes,” spoke about the beginnings of her career and studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art and then at the Rhode Island School of Design; her technique of working on several canvases at once; and her selectiveness regarding who she lets into her studio. She also talked about the way that landscapes from her past—such as those of Wisconsin, where she grew up—are remembered in her paintings.
In an interview with Emily Watlington, Madeline Peckenpaugh stated: “Lately I’ve been starting with the background, then working my way to the surface of my paintings. I like making the background look like it was the last thing that happened, even though it was first. I’m often building up thick paint, then wiping it away, and the wipes leave marks. But I change the process up from painting to painting—I always want to stay surprised and spontaneous.”
Three contemporary artists whose work probe depictions of time and space are on view in a group show at Alexander Berggruen on Madison Avenue. Each artist’s approach to depicting environments appear to be inspired by Surrealism, with distorted landscapes and tilted perspectives that challenge the viewer.
On the occasion of our exhibition Madeline Peckenpaugh: Farsight (April 12-May 17, 2023), we are pleased to share an essay by Kirsten Cave in which she considers Peckenpaugh’s photography and how its subject matter and compositional style relates to her paintings. This essay can be found as the foreword in Madeline Peckenpaugh: Detours, a book published by Alexander Berggruen. The book presents select photographs taken by Madeline Peckenpaugh between 2014-2022.
On the occasion of our exhibition Sholto Blissett, Emma Fineman, Madeline Peckenpaugh (December 10, 2021-January 22, 2022), we spoke with each of the artists about their work.
Madeline Peckenpaugh: Detours is a book of select photographs taken by Madeline Peckenpaugh between 2014-2022. This book was published on the occasion of the gallery’s exhibition, Madeline Peckenpaugh: Farsight (April 12-May 17, 2023) and features an essay by Gallery Associate Kirsten Cave.
This catalogue was published on the occasion of the gallery’s two-part exhibition, The Natural World: Part I (February 2-March 2, 2022) and The Natural World: Part II (March 9-April 13, 2022). Included within are images and details of the artworks featured in the exhibition, by artists including David Hockney, George Condo, Emma Webster, Madeline Peckenpaugh, Sholto Blissett, Brittney Leeanne Williams, Scott Kahn, and Nicasio Fernandez, to name a few.
This publication also features two new essays, which draw connections between the works in both exhibitions and discuss the emergent themes, by Gallery Associate and writer Kirsten Cave, and curator and art historian Jayne Cole.
