Maia Vollbrecht (b.2003) is an artist based in Austin, TX. Utilizing multiple disciplines— printmaking, photography, scent/audio, and sculptural installation, Vollbrecht makes work centered on the American South and ritual practices. Jacques Rancière’s ideas of intellectual emancipation inspire both the research process and material exploration to be informed by motifs, narrative, and results of Vollbrecht’s research. Organic forms, limited color palettes, and found objects are repeat players in her works, forming an intimate visual language that speaks to the layered perspectives in Vollbrecht’s practice.

In 2026, she will receive a BFA in Studio Art from The University of Texas at Austin. She is currently co-creative director at Bloodbath Studio- on METANOIA, an immersive, high fashion runway show in December 2024 and ANAMNESIS, a retrospective gallery exhibition in December 2025.

WORK STATEMENT

My practice is in developing multimedia, research-based projects to map my engagement with binaries in American acculturation. I make my work to encounter my own relationship to attention, perception, repression, and other regularly accepted binaries in daily American life.

My work has become an internal ritual of meaning-making, using processes to engage with uncertainty and utilize it as a connection point. Expressing these ideas physically through a variety of mediums allows others to join me in asking questions with no right answer. To anchor my conceptual process, I draw on Jacques Ranciere’s ‘The Ignorant Schoolmaster’ and Jean Baudrillard’s ‘Fatal Strategies’ to inform both the research process and use of experimental processes and techniques in my practice.

My works utilize digital, analog, and found materials as different voices or perspectives within each project. Their coexistence in my practice is an attempt to visualize the “between” of both political and cultural binaries I find myself engaging in as a queer Southern woman. Mediums as voices continues throughout my decision-making when creating: I desire to create an immersive atmosphere, inviting subtle contemplation of complex situations.