Joya: AiR / Judy Maxwell-McNicol / 2026

photo Annie Edwards

Joya: AiR / Judy Maxwell-McNicol / 2026

Judy Maxwell-McNicol is a London-based artist, originally from Scotland whose practice explores shame, gender, sexuality and the body through humour, craft and playful material interventions. Combining ready-made objects with labour-intensive handmade processes, Judy transforms familiar domestic materials into unexpected, often absurd forms. Her work uses laughter as a tool for confronting, complicating and reconfiguring experiences that are often hidden or internalised. At Joya, Judy continued her research into shame through sculpture, embodiment and collaboration, exploring how vulnerability, control and collapse can be physically expressed. Building on her use of automata, she investigated how sculptural bodies might perform, fail and create space for connection and release.