Madelyn Havens
Painting Instructor in Residence
Biography
Madelyn Havens is an abstract figurative painter whose work explores the physical and
emotional complexities of the human body. Working primarily in oil paint, cold wax, and oil
pastel, she investigates bodily interiority and exteriority through themes of corporeal
(dis)embodiment, vulnerability, fragmentation, tenderness, distortion, and the haunted
flesh. Her work considers the body as both presence and memory, using the materiality of
painting to give form to experiences that resist language.
Havens holds a BA in Studio Art from Knox College and an MFA in Studio Art from Illinois
State University. Her work has been exhibited at venues including Heaven Gallery and
Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, the Figge Art Museum, and the Borzello Gallery. She has
been featured in New American Paintings Magazine, and by the Green Family Art
Foundation through its digital platforms. Havens has received an Illinois Arts Council
Creative Projects Grant and the Bell Ringer Honor from Illinois State University.